IRAB coordinates the Fairfax County, VA Youth Survey which is a comprehensive survey of youth in sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth grades. It examines behaviors, experiences, and other factors that influence the health and well-being of the county's youth.
Prevention Insights has been awarded the National Evaluation of the Technology Transfer Center (TTC) Program grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health services Administration (SAMHSA).
The American Institute for Research (AIR) will be partnering with Prevention Insights on the 2-year, $1.5 million grant. Only one grant of its kind was awarded. The project runs from September 30, 2019 to September 29, 2021.
Prevention Insights and AIR will conduct the first assessment of SAMHSA’s “new” national TTC model of evidence-based program dissemination to best equip the healthcare workforce with the skills needed to address the prevention and treatment of mental health and substance misuse.
The purpose of the TTC is to develop and strengthen the specialized behavioral healthcare and primary healthcare workforce that provides prevention, treatment, and recovery support services for substance use disorder and mental illness.
Prevention Insights will work with agencies in the rural Indiana county of Fayette to plan the groundwork for improved access to opioid-related prevention services. The project will focus on reducing morbidity and mortality associated with opioid overdoses by improving the county’s prevention infrastructure and available services.
Prevention Insights will partner with Family Services and Prevention Programs (FSPP) who will serve as the community lead agency. Continued funding is anticipated in the future to implement, evaluate, and sustain the strategic plan that is developed during the planning phase.
Claude McNeal Productions has received a grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. to support the work necessary for ACT Out!, a live social-issues theatre troupe, to become evidence-based in social/emotional learning.
Prevention Insights will oversee the evidence-based research. The research will support:
- the creation of curriculum around Act Out!’s core topics: bullying, diversity and inclusion, substance abuse, healthy relationships, social anxiety and character development.
- pilot testing of the revised program, and;
- a randomized controlled trial in Indianapolis-area schools: Vanguard Collegiate, Lebanon Community High School and Indianapolis Public Schools.
The Knowledge for Life is a 5-year SAMHSA-funded initiative to reduce the incidence and prevalence of substance abuse, HIV, hepatitis C, and related health concerns within Gary, East Chicago, Hammond, and Lake Station, Indiana. This project employs a multi-tier approach in partnership with community agencies, including evidence-based prevention programming, rapid HIV testing, risk-reduction and motivational counseling, stigma mitigation via environmental strategies, and assessment of prevention efforts on key participant outcomes. IRAB staff serve in a variety of roles including Project Director, Evaluator, Epidemiologist, and Program Coordinator, all of which interface with multiple northwest Indiana community agencies to maximize local buy-in and positive impact on communities.
IRAB’s Evaluation Team provides comprehensive evaluation services to communities engaged in substance abuse prevention activities via SAMHSA-funded Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program grants. These coalition-based efforts are tasked with establishing and strengthening collaboration among key stakeholders in their community, and working together to prevent and reduce substance use among youth. IRAB develops data collection instruments, and monitors coalition activities and outputs to assess the extent of the coalition’s contribution toward any change in youth substance use rates and related risk or protective factors. IRAB staff have served as evaluators on DFC grants in Madison, Morgan, Scott, Dubois, and Clark Counties in the past. Currently two DFC recipients in Indiana contract with IRAB for evaluation services: Decatur Township Drug Free Coalition, and Drug Free Wayne County Partnership.
IRAB provides technical assistance and evaluation services to Indiana State University for their federally-funded initiative to teach screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) practices to undergraduate and graduate students in nursing, social work, and physician assistant programs. IRAB staff provided content expertise during the development of the curricula, and manage the project evaluation, including data collection, coding, validation and accuracy checks; development of paper and digital survey instruments; and submission to the appropriate federal databases. As of spring 2018, over 600 healthcare professionals have been trained in SBIRT best practices through the ISU program.
PharmNet is a program funded through Phase One of the Indiana University Addictions Grand Challenge to Beth Meyerson (Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention) and Jon Agley (Institute for Research on Addictive Behavior). It is a multi-stage research program involving quantitative and qualitative information gathering, pharmacy intervention development, and pharmacy implementation for a statewide public health intervention to address opioid use disorder and related comorbidities.
The Partnerships for Success (PFS) grant is a 5-year SAMHSA initiative awarded to the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA) to reduce alcohol and prescription drug abuse in the state of Indiana. IRAB provides evaluation services to DMHA as well as ten funded Indiana counties. The project includes evaluation efforts to track state-level process and outcome data to report to federal funders. County-level process and outcome data are also collected and evaluated and provided to the state and federal funders. Staff are in charge of creating data collection tools, data management, data analysis and reporting.
The Indiana College Substance Use Survey has been serving Indiana institutions of higher education since 2009. Funded by the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA), the survey collects data on the prevalence of substance use and other risk behaviors among Indiana college students. The survey was developed by the Indiana Collegiate Action Network (ICAN) and the Indiana Prevention Resource Center (IPRC), with input from Indiana institutions of higher education and the Indiana State Epidemiology and Outcomes Workgroup. The survey assesses substance use and consequences, variables associated with use (availability, peer attitudes and norms, and age of first use), mental health, and gambling behaviors.
The on-line survey is administered in the spring of odd-numbered years, free of charge, to any Indiana institution of higher education that wishes to participate.
