Bridget Freisthler

Curriculum Vita

Dr. Bridget Freisthler is the Cooper-Herron Endowed Professor in Mental Health in the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Most recently, Dr. Freisthler has developed, implemented, and evaluated interventions to reduce susbtance use-related problems, opioid overdoses and deaths and child abuse and neglect due to parent substance misuse. She is PI of the Ohio Research Site for the HEALing Communities Study and leads the evaluation of Ohio Sobriety, Treatment and Reducing Trauma (START) intervention . These interventions look to reduce the impact of the opioid crisis on families and local communities. She enjoys working alongside communities to identify local needs and co-develop solutions to support the most vulnerable populations.

She is an expert in the application of population-based geospatial research methods in understanding alcohol and drug-related problems (e.g., crime, child abuse and neglect) related to the availability of substances through drug various distribution systems. She has extensive experience studying how changes in alcohol outlet densities affect various social problems including examining how activity spaces and use of alcohol outlets are related to maladaptive parenting.  Her expertise includes the development of geographic information systems (GIS), and applications of spatial statistics and data analytics to (1) understanding how social problems vary across geographic areas, such as neighborhoods, (2) identifying those areas in a community which are at risk for developing or already experiencing high levels of social problems related to specific social and environmental exposures, and (3) examining how locations of social service treatment facilities may ameliorate the growth of problems in neighborhood areas. 

Dr. Freisthler’s research focuses on how situation, social, and location characteristics affect the use of child abuse and neglect. Specifically, she is interested in how microcontexts (e.g., where a person is during a particular event) shape behavior, such as parenting or substance use. These microcontexts might include where and with whom parents drink alcohol, use marijuana, or experience higher levels of stress; all of these may affect parenting behaviors. The goal of this research is to design, implement, and evaluate intervention strategies that reduce substance misuse and child abuse and neglect. This work falls under three broad categories: (1) basic science to better understand how context affects both parenting and substance misuse; (2) how specific features of environments or microcontexts can be modified to reduce or prevent child maltreatment and substance misuse; and (3) studying the effects of interventions designed to reduce child abuse and neglect and/or substance misuse.