The NYS SPF-PFS 2022's goal is to reduce behavioral health disparities among our most vulnerable populations by strengthening the state and local community's capacity to build and sustain culturally appropriate prevention services in high-risk underserved i.e. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC); lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender plus (LGBT+); and rural communities. We intend to increase access to quality prevention services within our most high-risk communities using the data-driven Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) to develop and to widely disseminate culturally responsive prevention strategies addressing underage and problem alcohol and cannabis use. Using state and local data to identify areas of highest prevention need, OASAS will fund six high-capacity community coalitions based on their ability to reach vulnerable, high-risk, or underserved communities such as BIPOC, LGBT+, and rural communities. The selected coalitions will receive targeted training and technical assistance to implement the SPF process and to adapt environmental change strategies, including media, policy, and compliance components, to reduce or delay underage alcohol/cannabis use and reduce adult problem alcohol/cannabis use. Each coalition will build local resources to develop and evaluate culturally responsive messaging to prevent the onset and reduce the progression of substance misuse and its related health problems while strengthening community and state level prevention capacity to engage health disparate populations.
Using a mix of evidenced-based programs, policies and practices, each coalition will focus on creating population change and sustainable prevention. Our measurable objectives outlined below are derived from outcomes associated with NYS OASAS's previous implementation of SAMHSA's State Incentive Grant 1999-2003, the NYS SPF-SIG 2009, and NYS PFS 2014 which funded environmental strategy coalition work:
1. Increase awareness within high-risk underserved communities (e.g. BIPOC, LGBT+, and rural) of the dangers of underage problem alcohol and cannabis use through culturally responsive prevention messaging.
2. Prevent the onset and reduce the progression of problem alcohol/cannabis use in high-risk underserved communities (e.g. BIPOC, LGBT+ and rural) by implementing environmental change strategies (ECS).
3. Increase capacity and infrastructure for collaborations to implement culturally responsive, data-driven prevention for high-risk underserved communities.
This initiative's needs, resource, and capacity assessments will serve as a foundation for OASAS's Statewide Community Health Assessment (CHA) and a Statewide Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) for substance use prevention to advance behavioral health equity across NYS's diverse communities. The CHA will identify key substance use and misuse prevention priorities, gaps in services, and behavioral health disparities through a systematic, comprehensive data collection process, analysis, and dissemination. The CHIP will act as a state and local framework for long-term substance use/misuse prevention. The plan will identify priority communities and offer best practice guidelines to build capacity for effective responsive prevention strategies gleaned from NYS PFS 2022. Both the CHA and CHIP will be a data-driven approach to address the lasting health consequences associated with substance use and misuse specifically in health disparate populations.