The University of Georgia's Center for Research on Behavioral Health and Human Services Delivery is using $9 million in federal and private grants to improve addiction treatment, Medical News Today reported Jan. 5.

"We have treatments that work, and we have people who want treatment," said center director Paul Roman. "The problem now is getting treatment providers to adopt new, promising practices so that substance abusers can get the best treatment available."

"It is hard to overestimate the societal value, both in dollars and in quality of life, of identifying effective ways to disseminate research-based treatments," added David Lee, the school's vice president for research.

Roman said that while new treatments have become available in recent years -- including new pharmacological interventions -- many individual, organizational, and systemic barriers to effective treatment remain.

In addition to research funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the UGA center has won grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and other funding sources. Last fall, the National Institutes on Health awarded Roman's group a five-year $3.2 million grant to study the diffusion, adoption and implementation of effective addiction treatment practices in a national network of treatment providers.