Virginia’s State Opioid Response Grant Evaluation & Technical Assistance

State Opioid Response funding can be a powerful opportunity to transform the lives of those living with a stimulant or opioid use disorder.

Community Consensus

The first step OMNI took was to determine the greatest needs facing Virginians with opioid use disorder (OUD) and stimulant use disorder.

OMNI conducted a needs assessment using secondary data sources and brought the findings to vested partners across the commonwealth to best understand the true picture of what the opioid epidemic looked like in Virginia and to ensure community voices were included throughout the evaluation. OMNI used the needs assessment and goals and objectives that DBHDS wrote into the SAMHSA application for funding to begin our evaluation planning process.

Setting the Vision for Impact

OMNI facilitated initial conversations with DBHDS to articulate their vision of what they hoped to achieve with SOR funds. OMNI used this information to build a comprehensive evaluation that would help DBHDS to quantify SOR impact, above and beyond federal reporting requirements. As a result of clearly articulating these goals, the evaluation has been able to demonstrate integration across the continuum of care, highlight Virginia’s peer recovery work to position them as a national expert, and identify gaps where DBHDS can continue to grow to address emerging opioid and stimulant use disorder needs.

Leveraging Data Expertise

With the vision in mind, OMNI translated DBHDS’ desire for impact into a Strategic Evaluation Plan that detailed how each component of the vision would be measured and mapped out the data collection processes. Starting with the end in mind allowed us to develop several evaluation tools that go beyond SOR grant requirements. These tools are used both for grant monitoring so DBHDS can make sure things are on track along the way and for measuring outcomes of grant-funded work. More than a dozen data sources are included in the evaluation plan and span SOR-funded strategies, including: coalition development efforts, community awareness media campaigns, behavioral health equity initiatives, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Naloxone training and distribution, jail-based treatment and recovery services, community recovery support services, peer recovery workforce development, and collegiate recovery programs. In addition, OMNI is closely tracking state epidemiological data for opioid-related outcomes such as overdoses and Naloxone administration.

Building a Culture of Data

Collecting data at this scale takes time and effort and relies on buy-in from everyone involved in the SOR grant. It was necessary to create a new culture around data, getting sub-recipients to understand the importance of data collection and incorporate new habits into their work. OMNI’s Technical Assistance (TA) team joined the project to train, guide, and answer sub-recipients’ questions—large and small—throughout the evaluation of prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery services. OMNI provides trainings on how to navigate data collection and has a host of GPRA-related resources including FAQs, tip sheets, and reminders. Sub-recipients submit their GPRA data to our platform and we submit it to SPARS to meet grant requirements. Because we manage the GPRA data, we are able to oversee data quality and work with sub-recipients to address challenges with GPRA collection. In addition we can provide weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly reminders to sub-recipients to keep them on schedule with the required 6-month follow-up surveys. DBHDS’ intake and follow-up rates have consistently been above the grant average across the four years of the SOR Grant. OMNI’s TA team builds trust with and connection to the people they support. This trust and connection allows us to evolve and improve our data collection processes, and supports overall program success.

Going Beyond Requirements

OMNI and DBHDS have shown that so much more can be accomplished with the funding than the minimum requirements. In addition to the data sources and reporting required by SAMHSA, DBHDS and OMNI dig deep into data across multiple sources, and OMNI regularly synthesizes these data to find key insights and share those insights via reports, one-pagers, tracking sheets, and presentations that inform and help to guide DBHDS as they manage the grant and determine next steps for addressing Virginians’ needs. These insights also support SOR grant sub-recipients in improving service delivery and understanding the value in evaluation activities. The information is also extremely valuable for DBHDS to continue strategic planning for future rounds of SOR funding and other initiatives across the agency.

Sample Deliverables

• SOR Annual Report 2020-2021
  The 2020-2021 SOR Annual Report is organized by the four core areas of the continuum of care which DBHDS is funding: community-based prevention, harm reduction, treatment services, and peer support services. omni.org/va-sor-annual-report-2020-2021

• SOR Quarterly Report
  The quarterly progress reports that OMNI produces for DBHDS track a variety of grant activities: community awareness and education, peer support services, Naloxone distribution and training, and more. omni.org/va-sor-quarterly-report

• Peer Recovery Support Implementation Guide: Collegiate Settings
  These guides offer recommendations to address common challenges of peer implementation in settings where peer work is growing. OMNI has also produced Peer Recovery Support Implementation Guides for Hospitals and Emergency Departments, and Justice Settings. omni.org/peer-implementation-guide-collegiate

Our SOR Evaluation & TA Experts

JULIA SIMHAI (she/her) | Director

Julia is a Director at OMNI and oversees and leads projects in OMNI's Community and Behavioral Health content areas. Most of her work is in applied evaluation of substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery initiatives. She loves working with public health data and using epidemiological sources to inform the work we do and help clients understand what's going on in their communities. Julia work with states and local communities on projects ranging from grant evaluations to needs assessments to strategic evaluation planning. She has a particular interest in data visualization as a way to clearly community data and make it accessible for all and try to bring that into all the projects that she is a part of.

JENNA LEE MATHEWS (she/her) | Senior Research Manager

Jenna is a Senior Research Manager at OMNI and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and combines mental health expertise with a passion for system improvement and program evaluation. Her work at OMNI has included several projects in behavioral health evaluation, including leading the planning and implementation of longitudinal outcomes evaluations and retrospective evaluations of residential mental health treatment centers. In addition, Jenna leads the recovery component of the Virginia State Opioid Response Grant evaluation which encompasses evaluation of peer recovery services implementation across community mental health settings, emergency departments, collegiate programs, and justice system facilities.

EDEN GRIFFIN (she/her) | Senior Research Manager

Eden is a Senior Research Manager at OMNI, with a focus in Behavioral Health evaluation and specialization in Substance Use Prevention. She partners with states and local communities to design and lead needs assessments and comprehensive evaluation planning to align prevention priorities with demonstrated need and evidence-based best practices, connecting with key community partners to find effective solutions to complex problems. Eden oversees OMNI’s survey best practice and technical assistance teams, supporting community-level data collection and utilization as well as capacity building to ensure both adherence to federal reporting requirements and achievement of evaluation goals.