Sunday, November 24, 2024
11/24/2024
Oklahoma State University Community Wellness Programs Project: PRISM The primary focus of this proposal will be the creation of the Center for Prevention Research and Intervention on Substance Misuse (PRISM) at Oklahoma State University (OSU). The purpose of the PRISM will be to prevent the onset, and reduce the progression, of substance misuse and reduce substance misuse-related problems among students, faculty, and staff at OSU, as well as in Payne County, OK. The proposed catchment area for this project includes OSU, Payne County, and its communities. Stillwater is the county seat for Payne County, a rural county in north-central Oklahoma. According to the Census Bureau, Stillwater is the tenth largest city in Oklahoma with a population of 48,394, while its MSA has a population of 81,646 according to the 2020 census. Stillwater has a land area of 229.79 square miles and a population density of 1,624.5 people/square mile. OSU is a large, public, land grant university with an enrollment of 24,649 undergraduates and graduate students from over 100 countries and all 50 states. OSU is the sixth largest employer in the state of Oklahoma with approximately 7,100 employees system wide. The presence of a large, land grant university, in a rural community, lends itself to several unique substance use/misuse challenges. First, college-aged drinking is widely identified as a substance misuse problem nationwide. Following these trends, 48.5% of OSU students who took the National College Health Assessment in 2022 (NCHA) reported binge drinking at least once within the past two weeks, at the time of the survey. Of further concern, 19.9% of students who reported drinking alcohol experienced a brownout episode within the past 30 days. A full 10.1% of the same students reported at least 1 full blackout episode in the past 30 days. In 2018, Oklahoma passed one of the least restrictive medical marijuana laws in the nation. Accordingly, marijuana use rates on campus, and in surrounding communities, have rapidly increased. Of the students surveyed, 41.7% report lifetime use of marijuana with 19.2% of those reporting use within the last 30 days. In addition, 14% of those reporting past cannabis use also indicated their use of marijuana led to health, social, legal, and/or financial problems. Campus leaders are largely aware of these issues, and OSU does produce a wide variety of resources and some interventions aimed at preventing substance use/misuse among students and staff. These efforts often remain siloed, however, and are rarely evidence-based or evaluated as effective behavioral change agents. PRISM will implement a unified and comprehensive approach to prevention programming at OSU and in its surrounding communities. This will include a mix of evidence-based programs, policies, and/or practices that best address the community's selected prevention priorities. This centralization will ensure more efficient and effective interventions with more measurable outcomes more likely to produce sustainable behavior change. Additionally, it will allow PRISM to provide focused and effective TA and training, based on the needs of the requesting entity. PRISM will work to strengthen prevention capacity infrastructure at the community level by working with a community coalition to ensure cultural competency, identify disparate populations, and affect environmental level interventions.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
