Integrating Substance Abuse and Suicide Prevention into Agency Practice and Policy

The health and wellness of Florida’s citizens are central to the success of the state as a whole. Substance abuse and mental health issues reduce quality of life, weaken communities, place added burdens on medical and judicial systems and strain the resources of state agencies. Preventing substance abuse, suicide and mental health problems before they occur can improve quality of life for Floridians, reduce burdens on businesses and contribute positively to the state economy.

Through the Sustaining Prevention in Florida initiative, the Florida Office of Drug Control’s Statewide Office of Suicide Prevention and the Department of Children and Families Substance Abuse Program office are working together to ensure that Florida maintains aggressive efforts to address substance abuse, suicide, and mental health issues. The aim is to identify ways to promote knowledge and understanding of effective prevention strategies and to incorporate these strategies into the practices and policies of state agencies.

Project Steps

1. Assess the existing use of prevention initiatives by state agencies. A survey/interview instrument will be developed to answer these and other questions:
• What categories of prevention activities does the agency engage in? (i.e., does the activity focus on substance abuse or suicide as a primary or secondary part of their initiative?)
• What levels of prevention are provided? (i.e. do prevention activities target universal, selected, or indicated populations?)
• How much funding does the agency receive for prevention and what are the sources of this funding?
• What is the agency’s strategic process or strategic model for determining prevention priorities?
• What data sources does the agency use to support their decisions?
• How does the agency evaluate the effectiveness of their prevention activities and practices?
• How do they use evaluation information to modify or improve their practices or those they fund?
2. Meet with key agency staff to explain the purpose of the project, seek buy-in from agency leaders, and seek agency direction on how to effectively survey that agency.
3. Seek commitment from agency leadership to introduce the survey process to agency staff and to validate the importance of the process.
4. Conduct in-depth interviews with agency staff to clarify information provided in the survey and to identify additional information that may not have been included in the survey instrument.
5. Analyze the information obtained from the surveys and interviews to identify available prevention resources among agencies as well as gaps in prevention activities and programming.
6. Using this information, develop recommendations for addressing gaps and incorporating prevention into each state agency’s mission, policies, and procedures.
7. Action items will be referred to the appropriate agency, task force, or advisory group for inclusion into statewide and agency strategic plans.
8. Develop monitoring system to track and report on progress on action items.
9. Assist each agency with the implementation of the recommended action items.