Evaluation of a Community Approach to Address Substance Abuse in Appalachia

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a conference based program designed to enable Appalachian community teams create an intervention plan to address substance abuse within their communities. In March of 2006, 26 Appalachian community teams attended a conference on the issues of substance abuse. At this conference, teams of 4-7 stakeholders generated community action plans. The teams were evaluated eight months later using a qualitative framework based on an adaptation of the Health Belief Model. Between November 2006 and January 2007, team leaders participated in structured telephone interviews to assess the outcomes of each community team plan. Results indicated the most common benefit to promulgating community plans was community support. The most commonly indicated barrier was time. The majority of community teams believed their community was highly susceptible to substance abuse problems. The cues most responsible for community action were public awareness campaigns that emphasized the problems associated with substance abuse. The common denominators for team success were the ability to recruit key stakeholders and the ability to integrate efforts with other agencies and community groups. Results of this study suggest that substance abuse is viewed by Appalachian communities as threat to the health of the public in the region. Collaborative effort on the part of communities will be needed. This health problem will not be solved by a single agency, philosophy, or program strategy. Multiple stakeholders are required to focus attention at a community level so that communities help themselves in addressing issues of substance abuse.