Overcoming Challenges to Recruitment and Engagement of Adolescents and Young Adults for Opioid Misuse Prevention in Practice

Effective implementation of opioid preventive interventions for adolescents and young adults (AYAs) is necessary to address the ongoing opioid epidemic in the United States. In 2019, 10 research institutions and one coordinating center received funding from the National Institute of Health's Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) initiative, under the "New Strategies to Prevent and Treat Opioid Addiction" Research Focus Area, to create the HEAL Prevention Cooperative (HPC). Each research team implemented an opioid preventive intervention for various AYA populations in different community settings. Five research teams addressed recruitment challenges over the course of their studies and created recruitment and engagement strategies that might be practical for future real-world/non-research implementations of opioid preventive interventions. To better understand these strategies, each of the research teams submitted written answers to a five-item qualitative survey probing for challenges and solutions. A rapid qualitative content analytic approach was employed. Three domains relevant to real-world practice were confirmed: (1) strategies to improve AYA reach and initial engagement in preventive interventions, (2) continuous engagement with community partners and AYAs, and (3) identification of AYA needs. This work has the potential to inform practice based on lessons learned for implementers to consider when developing or refining strategies to recruit AYAs into opioid preventive interventions.