Evaluating Virginia's State Opioid Response Grant (SOR) | Part II: Prevention
Welcome to part two in a four-part series in which we share findings from year one of Virginia’s State Opioid Response (SOR) Grant. This week, we continue our series with a look at progress related to Virginia's prevention efforts. We also share reflections on how prevention practitioners have responded to the emerging COVID-19 crisis, and how their work has quickly adapted to continue to deliver high quality prevention services in the midst of a rapidly changing environment.
Communities across Virginia leveraged SOR funding to implement a comprehensive array of prevention programs aimed at reducing prescription drug misuse and overdose deaths. In the first year of the grant, Virginia's Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) distributed SOR funds to 38 community service boards (CSBs) to implement primary prevention efforts across the commonwealth.
Primary prevention involves targeting both the general population as well as individuals at higher risk for substance misuse. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), successful prevention decreases risk factors and enhances protective factors. And, systems of prevention services work better than isolated efforts. The best prevention results come from partnerships.[1]
In the first year, key successes included the creation and maintenance of collaborative partnerships with faith communities, law enforcement, schools, healthcare workers, service organizations and local businesses. These partnerships allowed CSBs to deliver prevention education and messaging to diverse audiences, as well as to coordinate efforts at changing the broader environment, such as by reducing the availability of opioids.
Increasing community awareness of the opioid crisis is imperative for successful prevention. As a part of SOR, Virginia CSBs created media campaigns and prevention messaging in various formats including television, radio, print media, and social media. Virginia also increased opportunities to deliver prescriber education to healthcare providers as well as education programs to public on the impact of opioid misuse and the role of childhood trauma in risky substance use. CSBs reported broad reach with their prevention efforts including:
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Over 1 million individuals targeted with prevention messaging and social marketing efforts
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Nearly 7,000 youth engaged in youth-specific education
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More than 1,000 individuals reached through prescriber and patient education as well as trainings on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
Increasing the safe storage and disposal of prescription drugs works to decrease the availability and opportunity for misuse. Efforts to increase safe storage and disposal included the distribution of over 10,000 drug deactivation packets, more than 3,000 drug lockboxes and smart pill bottles, as well as numerous community drug take back events and the installation of permanent drug drop boxes.
Virginia also focused on behavioral health equity in prevention services. This included targeted equity-focused grants to communities and the implementation of a Behavioral Health Equity Summit to provide community participants with frameworks, tools, and resources to understand, envision, and address behavioral health equity in their communities.
Prevention Services in the Time of COVID-19
OMNI will continue to track these and other prevention successes in year two of the grant, along with data across the commonwealth related to desired outcomes such as shifts in prescription drug misuse and opioid overdose. Additionally, our evaluation and technical assistance to Virginia partners has pivoted to consider how prevention services need to adapt as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and to incorporate these changes into our broader evaluation.
To start to understand this context, we surveyed CSB prevention staff on how their work is changing in this era of social distancing and have heard about several adjustments, including:
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Providing trainings, coalition, and community meetings via virtual platforms such as live streams and webinars
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Adapting community surveys to be fully online rather than relying on in-person administration
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Preparing PSAs and increasing TV-based prevention messaging in response to increased viewership while communities are under stay-at-home orders
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Capitalizing on time to catch up on administrative tasks such as website updates and evaluation data submission
We also created a spreadsheet of COVID-related resources that CSBs contribute to and can reference to help them navigate the changing landscape of prevention work.
The prevention workforce is a resilient group that is working hard to support their communities during this time. OMNI will be hosting webinars in the coming week to hear more about these changes, and to provide CSBs an opportunity to connect with each other and share ideas on how to continue their important prevention work under the current circumstances. As one CSB staff member shared,
"COVID-19 has given us an opportunity to share our skills and resources in ways we had not imagined."
Below, we share the prevention section of our annual evaluation report which highlights the positive impact of community mobilization and coalition capacity building on developing a strong statewide prevention infrastructure as well as the importance of data-driven decision making and the implementation of evidence-based practices. Stay tuned to read about Virginia's treatment and recovery efforts in the following weeks!
[1] https://store.samhsa.gov/system/files/sma10-4120.pdf