SPF-PFS - BCCS, Inc. - Resist the Risk: A Substance Misuse Prevention Program (RTR) - Brandywine Counseling and Community Service, Inc.’s Resist the Risk: A Substance Misuse Prevention Program (RTR) addresses SAMHSA’ Strategic Plan FY2019 – FY2023’s Priority 3: Advancing Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Support Services for Substance Abuse, and as such, represents a local, community-based implementation of the prevention strategies outlined by SAMHSA and the overall Strategic Prevention Framework. The overarching goal(s) of the RTR mirror those of SAMHSA’s and include the prevention of the onset of substance misuse and the reduction in progression of substance misuse through strengthening Delaware’s prevention capacity and infrastructure and by utilizing evidence-based and data-driven strategies. BCCS has identified the primary problematic substances in the State of Delaware – alcohol, “alternative” marijuana, and opioid/prescription painkillers – and has developed (utilizing SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention Framework model) the Resist the Risk program to strengthen the prevention infrastructure and increase prevention messaging (targeting these substances) throughout Delaware.
Populations that will be impacted by the proposed prevention strategies include, but are not limited to, elementary school-aged youth beginning at nine-years of age (typically 4th thru 8th grades), high school-aged youth (typically aged 14 thru 18 - freshman through senior years), and college students and young adults up to the age of 24. Additionally, the project will also provide prevention programming for adults across Delaware through RTR prevention workshops, RTR community-based educational events, and leveraged resources/services offered by BCCS’ comprehensive behavioral health services targeting substance misuse and/or mental health disorders, co-occurring disorders, and the secondary issues related to substance misuse and mental illness.
Goals include 1) increasing Delaware’s prevention capacity (engage diverse stakeholders) by utilizing community coalition building strategies and raise community awareness about substance misuse in Delaware; 2) preventing the onset and reducing the progression of substance misuse in Delaware through the delivery of comprehensive, data driven, and evidence based prevention programming over five years; 3) developing and implementing public messaging and awareness campaigns on the risk of substance misuse and the importance of seeking care & treatment; and ensuring dissemination of these messages and strategies; 4) collecting and reporting community-level data to determine progress toward addressing SPF-PFS prevention priorities; and 5) effectively utilizing the Prevention Technology Transfer Center(s).
SAMHSA-approved, evidence-based interventions to be utilized in the RTR include, but are not limited to, Say it Straight, Botvin Life Skills, Project Alcohol Free, creating and disseminating multiple prevention messaging campaigns, including the promotion of SAMHSA’s “Talk. They hear you.” app, NIDA’s National Alcohol and Drugs Facts: Shattering the Myths campaign, and SAMHSA’s annual National Prevention Week. Over the five years of proposed RTR programming, well over 10,000 Delawareans will have participated in RTR programming.
