Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #118056

Renee I. Boothroyd, PhD, MPH, CHES¹, Johanna D. Birckmayer, PhD, MPH¹, and Julia Spencer, MSPH². (1) Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, 11710 Beltsville Drive, Suite 300, Calverton, MD 20705-3102, 301-755-2740, rboothroyd@pire.org, (2) State and Community Programs, SAMHSA/CSAP, 1 Choke Cherry Road, Rockville, MD 20850-4084

In an age of data-driven decision making, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) seeks to improve State and community prevention practice. Yet data alone, in the absence of carefully developed planning models for synthesizing and applying it, are insufficient for building effective prevention systems. To facilitate the translation of data into action, SAMHSA is supporting State Epidemiological Workgroups (SEW). A SEW is a network of individuals and organizations who are knowledgeable about alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug data and prevention issues. The primary mission of the SEW is to bring systematic and analytical thinking to prevention decision-making and improve the use of prevention resources. To carry out this mission, the SEW identifies epidemiological data needs, gathers and interprets data, and applies data implications to State and community planning, implementation, and ongoing monitoring activities. Guided by an outcome-based prevention model, the SEW seeks to better align effective strategies to improved outcomes by first understanding the prevalence and patterns of substance-related consequences, consumption patterns, and the intervening factors associated with them. The purpose of this session is to clarify and illustrate a statewide data driven process for enhancing the use of prevention resources by achieving greater correspondence between prevention strategies and the substance-related problems they seek to change. This session (a) provides an overview of SAMHSA-sponsored State Epidemiological Workgroups, (b) introduces SAMHSA's new State Epidemiological Data System, and (c) describes two case studies of States applying this epidemiological infrastructure and outcome-based prevention framework to enhance substance abuse prevention.

Learning Objectives: Participants in this session will be able to

• Describe SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention Framework and the State Epidemiological Workgroup infrastructure that supports data-driven decision making.
• Identify core epidemiological data elements that are key for assessing, targeting, and monitoring prevention outcomes (i.e., substance-related consequences and consumption patterns).
• Explore the realities and challenges of States’ using epidemiological data to influence prevention priorities for resource allocations.

Keywords: Substance Abuse Prevention, Decision-Making

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation