Session: Evaluating Comprehensive Prevention Implementation: What Types and Combinations of Interventions Do Community Organizations Implement? (Society for Prevention Research 25th Annual Meeting)

One of the goals of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) is to support evidence-based approaches for integrating prevention programs into state and community systems. The Program Evaluation for Prevention Contract (PEP-C) provides a unique opportunity to assess the influence of CSAP’s efforts across multiple, nationwide substance abuse prevention programs. PEP-C consists of a collaboration between CSAP and four separate research organizations to conduct national, cross-site evaluations of community-focused substance abuse prevention programs. Community grantees in each of these programs engage in the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) process to 1) assess their priority substance abuse needs and populations, 2) build the capacity of the community and prevention workforce to address those needs, 3) go through a planning process to determine the best interventions to address their needs, 4) implement the interventions, and 5) evaluate the impact of the interventions. A focus on sustainability and cultural competence is integral to the SPF process.

CSAP’s programs use the SPF process to help bridge the gap between research and everyday practice by encouraging grantees and communities to use data-informed decision making to select appropriate evidence-based interventions to implement. This symposia describes how the evaluations of two of CSAP’s programs can inform prevention researchers on the effects of the types and combinations of interventions that community implementers select when needing to target those interventions to their real world needs.

The first presentation describes the most common types and combinations of interventions implemented by CSAP’s Partnerships for Success (PFS) subrecipient communities. The second presentation uses Qualitative Comparative Analysis to demonstrate which combinations of PFS intervention types appear most associated with positive outcomes. The third presentation investigates how the types of services received, the format of service delivery, and the length of service exposure impact substance abuse and HIV risk for Minority AIDS Initiative program participants. The symposia will conclude with a discussion of which factors communities may consider when selecting programs, policies and practices to include in their comprehensive substance use intervention activities.