The purpose of this exercise is to get you to focus on the consequences of substance use in your community and the consumption patterns that might be a priority. This will lay the foundation for your strategic plan. Review Previous Needs and Resource Assessments. You may also want to gather and review any previous needs assessments that have been conducted in your state or community over the last five years that might be relevant to substance abuse prevention efforts. You should identify the aspects relevant to substance abuse prevention, particularly to consumption patterns that have been identified as a priority by your state agency, and the related negative consequences. What you find will help shape your subsequent data collection efforts. Appendix C provides a table to help you compile pertinent findings from the prior assessments. Data Sources You may want to ask around about gaining access to local sources of information. These can include (but are not limited to): Police reports; School incident and discipline reports; Court records; Medical examiner data; Hospital discharge data; and Emergency Department (EDED/ER) data. All these sources of information have positives and negatives. Many are not computerized and nearly all will raise privacy concerns. You may have to reach agreements with individuals, organizations, school boards or agencies in order to gain access to these data. However, such records can be rich sources of information that may help you pinpoint substance misuse and related consequences in your community. For example, obtaining the number of ED/ER visits that involved the non-medical use of prescription drugs would be an appropriate and data-driven way to identify whether the misuse of prescription drugs is a concern in your community. It might be a good idea to invite individuals who represent these local data sources to participate on your assessment committee and provide insight about interpreting the information. In addition, your state’s Epidemiologist, SEOW chair or senior public health officials should be able to advise you on how to best gain access to and analyze these local data. Identify Intervening Variables and Contributing Factors By now you have probably come to the conclusion that the data you have reviewed thus far is not enough to give you the whole picture. The next phase of a needs assessment asks you to begin to think about intervening variables. This will build upon what you have learned and help focus further information gathering efforts. Once you have examined available data and considered the assessments that have been conducted in your community, stop and review what you have learned thus far.
The purpose of this exercise is to get you to focus on the consequences of substance use in your community and the consumption patterns that might be a priority. This will lay the foundation for your strategic plan. Review Previous Needs and Resource Assessments. You may also want to gather and review any previous needs assessments that have been conducted in your state or community over the last five years that might be relevant to substance abuse prevention efforts. You should identify the aspects relevant to substance abuse prevention, particularly to consumption patterns that have been identified as a priority by your state agency, and the related negative consequences. What you find will help shape your subsequent data collection efforts. Appendix C provides a table to help you compile pertinent findings from the prior assessments. Data Sources You may want to ask around about gaining access to local sources of information. These can include (but are not limited to): Police reports; School incident and discipline reports; Court records; Medical examiner data; Hospital discharge data; and Emergency Department (EDED/ER) data. All these sources of information have positives and negatives. Many are not computerized and nearly all will raise privacy concerns. You may have to reach agreements with individuals, organizations, school boards or agencies in order to gain access to these data. However, such records can be rich sources of information that may help you pinpoint substance misuse and related consequences in your community. For example, obtaining the number of ED/ER visits that involved the non-medical use of prescription drugs would be an appropriate and data-driven way to identify whether the misuse of prescription drugs is a concern in your community. It might be a good idea to invite individuals who represent these local data sources to participate on your assessment committee and provide insight about interpreting the information. In addition, your state’s Epidemiologist, SEOW chair or senior public health officials should be able to advise you on how to best gain access to and analyze these local data. Identify Intervening Variables and Contributing Factors By now you have probably come to the conclusion that the data you have reviewed thus far is not enough to give you the whole picture. The next phase of a needs assessment asks you to begin to think about intervening variables. This will build upon what you have learned and help focus further information gathering efforts. Once you have examined available data and considered the assessments that have been conducted in your community, stop and review what you have learned thus far.
SPF%20Guide%20to%20Assessment%20FINAL.docx