Addressing Burnout in Virginia's Peer Support Field

Last week the OMNI SOR Recovery Team hosted a webinar on Addressing Burnout in Virginia's Peer Support Field. As it is also relative to you all's work, we wanted to share it here as well. Some prevalent challenges regarding peer burnout that emerged from this session were:

  • Supervisors and team members would benefit from a better understanding of what a peer does and doesn't do. Avenues to addressing this barrier could be supervisors and team members learning more about what defines the role broadly, or agencies/teams defining the role more clearly.

  • Peers need time off or work schedule adjustments to recuperate from burnout, but a culture reluctant to be open about health care providers' mental health and taking time off leads to this not happening.

  • Lastly, there is a need to value the expertise peers bring to this work more, especially surrounding peers' resiliency and from non-peer staff.

You can find a link a video summary of the information here and a PDF overview of this information here. Both are also listed on the Peer Recovery Research page of the SOR Support website.

This video includes the information covered in the session as well as the discussion questions posed during it. Both are included as we hope that this recording can help facilitate a mini-session on burnout with appropriate groups of staff at your agency. The recording will prompt you to first listen to the information provided and then pause the video at each set of discussion questions.

Reminder: OMNI Offices Closed from December 24-January 2

This is to remind you that OMNI will be officially closed from December 24th through January 2nd, reopening on Monday, January 3rd.

Our entire team be unavailable for project-related support during the closure dates. Any emails or voice mail messages will be reviewed and responded to as soon as possible starting January 3rd. GPRA online surveys and all resources on our website will still be available during this time. However you will not receive any updated tracking sheets in your Dropbox folder during the week of December 27-31. This will resume starting the week of January 3rd.

Let the OMNI Team know if you have any questions about our closure or anticipate any concerns. Though our official closure is from the 24th to the 3rd, please try to wrap up TA requests by Monday, December 21st so we can get you the info you need before our closure.

Wishing you a happy and healthy end of 2021 and a bright start to 2022!

SOR Support Team

Quarter 4 SOR Progress Report

We are excited to share the SOR quarterly progress report for Quarter 4 (July to September 2021). This report focuses on SOR prevention, treatment, and recovery evaluation activities for the state in Quarter 4 and includes data from quarterly surveys, GPRAs, and PBPS. You can find the report linked here or on the Reports page of the SOR Support website.

Thank you for all your hard work this past quarter! We hope this report can be used to showcase SOR progress across the state. Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback.

Statewide Follow-up GPRA Interview Rate Now Exceeds All-Grantee Rate!

We wanted to take a moment to share some kudos with CSBs/agencies for this great milestone:

The GPRA follow-up interview rate in the federal SPARS reporting system for Virginia SOR II is now at 44.6% which is above the average for all SOR grantees across the country (43.5%).

Our OMNI Team has been working hard to provide tips, best practices, and individualized TA to support your work, and so have you all, and it is paying off! Although we still have a little ways to go to reach SAMHSA's 80% target, we wanted to recognize and celebrate the hard work you've all put in to raise our Virginia rate.

Thank you for working so diligently to get those important follow-up interviews in place. It appears that you have improved your client tracking and outreach processes. Further, you are also bringing a spirit of inquiry (e.g., "How might we do this better?" "What TA tips can you offer to support us?") to your work as you reach out to the OMNI team for TA in this area.

In the coming months, we'll be sharing some shout-outs about CSBs or Agencies that are doing really well with their intakes, follow-ups, engaging and supporting clients, and/or those that demonstrate that "spirit of inquiry" when engaging with our TA Team on GPRA administration issues.

May the trend continue!

OMNI Offices Closed from December 24-January 2

Greetings! This is to alert you that OMNI will be officially closed from December 24th through January 2nd, reopening on Monday, January 3rd. We are closing our office so that our staff can enjoy the end of the year and re-energize for 2022. We hope you can find some time to do the same!

Our entire team will be unavailable for project-related support during the closure dates. Any emails or voice mail messages will be reviewed and responded to as soon as possible starting January 3rd. Please note that the GPRA online surveys and all resources on our website will still be available during this time, but you will not receive updated tracking sheets in your Dropbox folder.

Please let the OMNI team know if you have any questions about our closure or anticipate any concerns. Though our official closure is from the 24th to the 2nd, please try to wrap up TA requests by Monday, December 20th so we can get you the info you need before our closure.

Wishing you a happy and healthy end of 2021 and a bright start to 2022!

Sincerely,

SOR Support Team

Webinar on Addressing Burnout in Virginia's Peer Recovery Field

DBHDS and OMNI are hosting a webinar on Tuesday, December 7 from 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. EST about addressing burnout in Virginia’s Peer Recovery Field. It will be a guided problem-solving discussion for peer supporters and their supervisors to discuss the topic of burnout and ways to address it. Please see this flyer for more details and share it with your networks! Make sure to register for the webinar by December 6 at bit.ly/PeerBurnoutWebinar2021.

Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) 33 for Stimulant Use Disorders from SAMSHA

SAMSHA recently shared this Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) 33. This updated TIP reviews what is known about treating the medical, psychiatric, and SUD-related problems associated with the use of cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as the misuse of prescription stimulants.

The TIP offers recommendations on treatment approaches and maximizing treatment engagement and retention, and strategies for initiating and maintaining abstinence. Click here for more and the downloadable PDF.

New SOR Recovery Initiatives Fact Sheet

DBHDS and OMNI would like to share a new fact sheet which outlines recovery services CSBs and SOR partners offer and specific work accomplished in each area. Additionally, it outlines how this work has expanded the peer recovery field broadly and highlights original research resources developed by OMNI for the SOR grant that anyone can access to learn more about supporting others in the field doing similar work.

Thank you for your support of these efforts! Please feel free to share this fact sheet with anyone interested in SOR recovery work.

Click here to review the fact sheet.

SOR FY 21-22 Kickoff Announcement from OMNI

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We are officially in the second year of SOR II! Please read through our updates below.

SOR II Year 1 is in the books!

As we close out Year 1 we wanted to thank you for all your hard work in the past year! We easily hit the 1500 intake goal for Year 1 and are well on our way of meeting the 3000 intake goal for the entire grant. Additionally, we have recently seen an uptick in Virginia's follow-up rate! Thank you all for your hard work this past year!

 

New survey links

As a reminder, with the new grant year comes new survey links. These are already embedded on our SOR Support website, but please be sure to use these updated GPRA survey links:

 

Survey updates

In these new surveys, we listened to your feedback and streamlined the 30-day substance use questions in Part B of the GPRA. Now, you will not have to answer the 30-day substance use questions for any substance the client did not indicate using!

 

New and Updated TA tools

There has been an uptick in Virginia's interview follow-up rate recently (now at 40.4%), but it is still below the SAMSHA all-grantee average of 44.5% as well as SAMSHA's overall follow-up rate goal (80%). The OMNI Team has released some new TA tools and updated others to support a continuing upward trend in interview follow-up completions as well as a revamped tool to support client engagement with the overall evaluation and GPRA processes.

  • A refreshed new version of your weekly tracking sheets now highlights:

    • Six-Month Status: The 6m-Status column indicates clients with open follow-up windows in green and those with windows closing in the next two weeks (Closing soon) in red.

    • Summary Information: You can see at a glance the number of windows open and the number closing in the next two weeks at the top of the tracking sheet.

    • Notes - Possible duplicate: The Notes column will indicate when a client is a Possible duplicate. This means that a second intake, follow-up, or discharge GPRA was submitted to the online system for the same client. Please look at the interview dates and survey type (interview vs. administrative) to determine if a duplicate GPRA was submitted for this client, and email us if so!

    • If you want more information on how best to use this tool, please check out the newly updated Weekly Tracking Sheet Overview document.

  • If you missed it or want a refresh, check out the Community Forum recording from this past July on our website that focused on engaging clients for their follow-up GPRA survey.

  • We also put together a GPRA Administration Tips and Best Practices sheet listing many strategies for engaging clients and best practices to keep all GPRA-related processes and planning organized! Many of these tips came from CSBs!

  • Additionally, OMNI rolled out an updated Client Engagement Sheet. Share this with clients so they can understand the why, what, and how of the GPRA and SOR and to encourage their participation in the evaluation.

  • New monthly Progress Reports hit your agency's Dropbox folder in August! They feature updates that more clearly allow you to see your agency's GPRA progress, such as number of surveys completed and follow-up rates. It includes a helpful page that explains components of the report, as well.

  • Lastly, we have updated both our weekly and monthly email reminders!

    • The weekly reminders are sent to all agencies that have clients whose follow-up window will close in the next two weeks and now share not only the date this window will close, but also the total number of open windows.

    • The monthly reminders have been transformed into GPRA status updates and are meant to serve as a check-in for you all to ensure everything is on track. Review them to see how many clients are currently in their follow-up window, when the next window closes, your agency's follow-up survey completion, and interview versus administrative follow-up breakdown.

 

Things to come

  • Reporting

    • Lastly, with the end of Year 1, we are now in reporting season! In the next couple months OMNI will be rolling out a statewide SOR Report as well as Agency-level reports. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for those releases!

    • As we start this work, please submit any success stories using this survey link. Stories submitted allow us to highlight the amazing work you all do, so please submit one if you can!

  • Agency-OMNI Check-Ins: The TA Team is planning to have 1:1 meetings with each agency in early 2022. These will be general check-ins so we can get to know each other better and support you all more effectively. Stay tuned for more info to come!

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200#200.112 Per 2 C.F.R. § 200.112-1113 The Federal awarding agency must establish conflict of interest policies for Federal awards. The non-Federal entity must disclose in writing any potential conflict of interest to the Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity in accordance with applicable Federal awarding agency policy. Failure to adhere to these statues will result in immediate termination of funding.

Virginia’s State Opioid Response (SOR) grant is awarded at the discretion of DBHDS and SAMHSA. All recipients of SOR funding supports evidence-based prevention, treatment and recovery services to address opioid and stimulant misuse and use disorders, including for cocaine and methamphetamine. The SOR grant is not intended to be utilized as a long-term or permanent funding source. All SOR proposals must include a realistic plan for financial sustainability beyond the grant period.