Strategic Prevention Framework- Partnerships for Success 2024 - As an established substance use prevention organization, San Juan County Partnership will continue its work in the community of San Juan County, New Mexico through the SPF-PFS program. Prevention focus will be on delaying initiation and reducing use of cannabis, alcohol and vaping among youth ages 9-20, and will reduce the harmful consequences associated with high-risk and chronic use of alcohol among adults, through innovative harm reduction programs.
Located in the northwest corner of New Mexico, San Juan County is a rural area with two-thirds of the land located within the Navajo Nation. With a population of 120,418, the county is an ethnically, racially diverse area, with 43% of the population identifying as Native American (Navajo), 22% of the population as Hispanic/Latino, and 36% as White, non-Hispanic. There are an estimated 22,000 youth, ages 9-20, and 65,000 adults ages 21-64, who will be impacted by the program. Overall, 24% of the population lives below the poverty level, including 33% of children. Health and financial disparities are widespread. There will be outreach to high-risk youth, racial/ethnically disparate populations and rural areas of the county.
San Juan County bears a heavy burden of the consequences of chronic and high-risk alcohol use and Alcohol Use Disorder, including a rate of alcohol-involved death that is four times the U.S. rate. Among youth, a focus in our data is significantly more youth reporting early onset of substance use, as well as high rates of cannabis use and vaping.
The proposed approach for this project revolves around three goals. The first goal is to strengthen and grow the Community Action Coalition to continue to unite and engage partnering organizations and agencies from diverse sectors in comprehensive county-wide strategic prevention planning. The second goal is aimed at reducing youth substance use and early initiation of use, with a blend of evidence-based prevention programming, social norms marketing with prevention messages for youth and for adults/parents, school-based prevention presentations, and a unique art-as-prevention component. The third goal is focused on harm reduction approaches to reduce harmful consequences of alcohol among adults, to also introduce “Talking Circle” virtual harm reduction opportunities developed by UW’s HaRRT specifically for Native Americans.
Youth-specific measurable objectives target a variety of intervening variables: perception of risk of harm, especially of vaping and cannabis use, enhancing accurate perception of the social norms, substance use refusal skills and safety behaviors among adults such as safe storage of substances. Protective factors include positive future orientation, self-esteem and family communication. Adult specific measures include quality of life, substance use severity, and safe modes of use of alcohol and other substances. At a community level, we anticipate building capacity as we introduce and raise awareness about harm reduction approaches and facilitate messaging to reduce stigma associated with AUD and substance use in general.
Each year, the project will directly serve 20 or more Coalition members, 100 or more for the life of the project. Evidence-based direct service programs for youth (developed by the Standford REACH Lab) will serve approximately 100 annually, and 500 over the course the project. Each year, the alcohol harm reduction (LEAP/Talking Circle) program developed by UW’s harm reduction center will serve approximately 50 adults, with 300 served over the course of the project. The social marketing campaign is designed to impact the county’s youth population each year, 22,000 with messages for youth and complimentary messages to reduce social access to substances by youth.
