Mental Health and Substance Abuse/May 2013
Westat assesses the impact of behavioral health issues and how to address those challenges.
Turning to the Community to Heal Trauma
A new effort is at hand to implement a public health approach on responding to trauma. This effort involves the community, persons who have experienced trauma in their lives, and service providers in awareness-building activities and interventions to address trauma. For the Office on Women’s Health, Westat is launching curriculum-based training and technical assistance efforts to create community-wide trauma-informed approaches through regional districts.
Each district will bring together teams from six community programs to receive the training. Program staff will create work plans for their community to address the prevention of trauma and how to create a pervasive community-based, trauma-informed approach that facilitates healing for those who have experienced trauma. The curriculum focuses primarily on adults who have experienced interpersonal trauma in their lives.
Helping CSAP Measure Its Performance
For the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Westat is supporting the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) in meeting its reporting requirements for the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Modernization Act of 2010 and National Outcome Measures.
Westat is implementing a web-based system for collecting program performance and monitoring data from CSAP grantees and selected contractors. We are also analyzing and reporting performance data from grant programs and selected contracts to assess the extent to which CSAP is meeting its programmatic goals and objectives.
Winning Tools That Move Research to Practice
To support persons with mental illnesses and/or substance use disorders, the Knowledge Application Program (KAP) integrates science-based practices with health communication and social marketing strategies into useful products. Working with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which sponsors KAP, Westat engages target audiences and disseminates key information through these materials. Here are a few of our latest products.
Healing in the Community – Trauma, Growth and Recovery is a 20-minute video that illustrates how the Western Massachusetts Consortium in Greenfield and Franklin County create peer-led and trauma-informed services in a community. This video recently won a Bronze Telly Award in the Film/Video: Non-Broadcast Productions – Social Issues Category.
Permanent Supportive Housing: An Evidence-Based Practice – Fostering Health, Home and Community highlights the activities of service providers in three states as they address the needs of persons with mental illnesses and/or substance use disorders in the homeless services system.
Road to Recovery, a web-based video series, is a set of four short videos that explore depression. The series helps individuals recognize symptoms of depression, identify the causes of depression and how to address it, explore treatment options, and provide insights into the recovery process.