Research Goals

MATAspire  (Mental health Awareness Tailored App for Substance Prevention and Integrated Resilience Education) is a 5-year grant funded by SAMHSA. Through the development and implementation of an innovative substance use prevention and coping skills app, and in partnership with University Counseling Services and other CSUN community partners, we seek to address the following essential needs: provide accessible, evidence-based, and culturally relevant substance misuse prevention and resilience coping strategies to underserved students; and increase promotion and awareness of substance misuse and mental health, resilience and wellness services to the campus community. 

The main program objectives include

• Goal 1: Increase campus capacity to promote substance misuse prevention education and bolster protective coping skills among underserved students by developing MATAspire.
• Goal 2: Reduce the risk factors associated with substance misuse, depression, and anxiety, and enhance protective coping skills among participants in the MATAspire app. 
• Goal 3: Develop and implement a campus community initiative, marketing campaign, and comprehensive website to educate and increase awareness of resilience and wellbeing coping skills and substance misuse prevention and mental health services.
• Goal 4: Reduce substance misuse behavior and symptoms of anxiety and depression as a result of increased campus-wide utilization of prevention services on CSUN’s campus. 

Our grant will also be collecting data as part of a research study on campus. Below is the informed consent form for the research study:

 MATAspire Consent Form Pdf file

If you have any questions regarding our services or research, please send us an e-mail to MATAspire@csun.edu.

For access to preliminary data for CSUN students conducting research, or for further information regarding our current (MATAspire) or previous (iSTART) grants, please contact Dr. Bethany Rainisch at bethany.rainisch@csun.edu.