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SPF Indiana

DMHA Grantees

The following is from SAMHSA’s website and describes step one of the SPF: Assessment

Step 1. Assess Needs
Under the SPF, communities are expected to assess population needs, including levels of substance abuse and related problems; available resources to support prevention efforts, and community readiness to address identified prevention problems or needs. We explore each of these categories, below.

Collecting Consequence and Consumption Data
In the substance abuse prevention world, population-level needs assessment looks at the patterns and effects of substance abuse in particular populations, as well as related behavioral health problems. Assessment often begins at the State, Jurisdiction, or Tribe level, with a review of epidemiological data--when these data are available. In some cases, the State identifies one priority problem and expects all communities to address it through their local efforts. In other cases, communities may be asked to choose from among several priority problems.
In either case, communities need to collect additional data, either to better understand the problem identified by the State, or to help them decide which of several State-identified problems they should tackle. They also need to understand the nature, extent, and impact of identified problems at the local level, to uncover the factors that drive them, and to identify appropriate solutions.
Problems are typically thought of in terms of consequences and consumption patterns:

  • Consequences describe what happens when people use substances. Any social, economic, or health problem can be defined as a substance-related consequence if the use of alcohol, tobacco, or illicit drugs increases the likelihood that the consequence will occur.
  • Consumption describes the way people drink, smoke and use illicit drugs. Examples of consumption patterns include binge drinking among underage youth, women of child-bearing years who drink 5 or more drinks per day, and senior citizens who mix alcohol with their medications.

Who and where describe consumption patterns. The effects are the consequences.
Determining consumption patterns and consequences requires data. There are two basic kinds of data--quantitative and qualitative. Often, communities use a combination of qualitative and quantitative data to get a good handle on their local substance abuse problems.

  • Quantitative data are usually reported numerically. An example of quantitative data is the percentage of car crashes caused by teens that have been drinking. Sources of quantitative data include counting, checklists, surveys, and analysis of statistics.
  • Qualitative data are usually reported in words. Sources of qualitative data include stories, case studies, testimonials, and focus groups.

Before embarking on a major data collection undertaking at the community level, it is helpful to take stock of information that may already been collected. For example, States often collect community-specific data to inform the State epidemiological profile. Also, many communities routinely collect data on underage drinking through the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Typically, however, communities need to supplement existing data by collecting additional information.

Setting Priorities
Once communities have completed data collection and review, they need to develop a process for setting prevention priorities. Criteria for analyzing and prioritizing assessment data include:

  • Magnitude, which describes the number of people affected by a problem.
  • Changeability, which describes how easily a problem can be changed.
  • Impact, which describes the depth of a problem across a variety of dimensions, such as health, economic or criminal.
  • Concentration, which describes how concentrated the problem is in a specific population.
  • Time lapse, which describes the amount of time that elapses between consumption and consequence. This is important to consider if a community wants to show that it is having an impact within a set timeframe.

Each community will develop its own set of criteria for prioritizing needs--and for weighing these criteria again one another.

Risk and Protective Factors
Once communities have selected their prevention priorities, they also need to assess the factors driving the prioritized problem(s). Each substance abuse prevention problem has its own set of risk and protective factors. However, the factors driving a problem in one community may differ from the factors driving it in another community. One of the most important lessons learned from prevention research is that, in order to be effective, prevention strategies must address the underlying factors driving a problem. It doesn't matter how carefully a program or practice is implemented. If it's not a good match for the problem, it's not going to work.

Available Resources to Support Prevention Efforts
Communities take a big step toward effective prevention when they conduct a systematic resource assessment. Resource assessments help identify potential resource gaps, build support for prevention activities, and ensure a realistic match between identified needs and available resources. When people hear the word resources, they often think of staff, financial support, and sound organizational structure. But substance abuse prevention resources also include factors such as:

  • Community efforts to address prevention issues
  • Community awareness of those efforts
  • Specialized knowledge of prevention research, theory and practice
  • Practical experience working with particular populations
  • Knowledge of the ways local politics and policies help or hinder prevention efforts.

It is important that communities focus their resources assessments on relevant resources (i.e., resources that are related to their priority problems). A well-planned and focused assessment will produce far more valuable information than one that casts too wide a net. At the same time, keep in mind that useful and accessible resources may well be found outside of the substance abuse prevention system, among the many organizations working to reduce the impact of behavioral health problems.

Community Readiness to Address Identified Prevention Problems or Needs
Data may reveal what problems to address--but is the community ready to commit resources to address these problems? Do they believe there is a problem? What are people's perceptions of it? How accurate are they? And how do key leaders perceive the problem? Assessing community readiness can help practitioners determine whether the time is right, the place is right, and whether there is a social momentum towards addressing the problem, or problems, they hope to tackle.

To be useful, readiness assessments should represent and reflect the readiness of all sectors of the community. To do this, communities must engage in a culturally competent assessment process. This means involving representatives from across sectors in assessment planning and data collection. It also means collecting information, across sectors, in ways that are appropriate and respectful. Finally, it means taking a close look at the people around the planning table and seeing if they reflect the diversity of the population, at large.
Ultimately, the assessment should include information about the cultural and ethnic make-up of the community, how substance abuse problems are perceived among different sectors, who has been engaged in prevention planning and implementation of prevention interventions, and what barriers to participation in prevention efforts exist.

Engaging key stakeholders in all aspects of the assessment process will contribute to the sustainability of the overall prevention initiative. It will help to ensure their buy-in and lay the foundation for ongoing participation and support. It is also vital to share assessment findings with key stakeholders and other community members. The better they understanding baseline issues, the more they'll appreciate--and want to sustain--all that the prevention efforts accomplish.



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  • Indiana College
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  • Digging Deeper:
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  • Interpreting R & P Data



  • Partnerships CTC Introduction


  • Community Resources Assessment
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  • Evaluation



  • Community Assessment Training


  • Archival Data Presentation
    Part 1   |   Part 2



  • Survey Data for Assessment




Resources