What is the GPRA and Who Should Complete It?

Our team periodically shares some basic information about the GPRA for new staff or as a refresher for current staff. If your CSB/agency has new staff members, this will provide a brief overview of what the GPRA is and when to administer it. New staff can also request support with a GPRA orientation from a member of the TA team.

What is the GPRA?

Virginia received a federal State Opioid Response (SOR) grant, designed to improve access and availability of opioid use disorder (OUD) and/or stimulant use disorder treatment services and increase the number of people who receive treatment for these disorders. The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) is a required evaluation tool for this funding and is administered by Community Services Board (CSB) and agency staff across Virginia. Client-level data are collected including demographics, ICD10 diagnostic categories, substance use and misuse, mental health and physical health functioning, and other key variables. A CSB/agency staff member must ask the client the survey questions in an interview format; clients cannot fill out the survey themselves. OMNI Institute provides training and technical assistance (TA) to CSBs/agencies to support them in administering the GPRA.

Who Should Complete a GPRA?

In order for SOR-funding to cover someone's services (i.e., pay for their services because they don't have insurance or can't afford to pay) they need to either have a stimulant use disorder or an opioid use disorder (OUD). If there are clients receiving services from a SOR-funded staff (salary paid by SOR) then the clients are eligible for the GPRA regardless of whether or not they have a stimulant use disorder or OUD because the staff person's time is paid by the grant. In those cases, the patient's bill for services still cannot be covered by SOR-funding because they don't have the appropriate diagnoses.

Services may include:

  • Medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD)

  • Therapy

  • Intensive Outpatient Services

  • Peer Support

  • Drop-In Center

  • Peer Groups

  • Child Care

  • Transportation

  • Vouchers

When are GPRAs Administered?

All clients should be administered the GPRA survey at three timepoints: at intake to services, six months after intake, and discharge from services. The weekly tracking sheet in your Dropbox folder can help you manage these timepoints:

  • The intake GPRA is the first GPRA survey, completed when the client first receives SOR-funded services.

  • The follow-up GPRA is completed approximately 6 months after the intake GPRA, even if the client has already been discharged from services and completed a discharge GPRA. The follow-up window is open between 5 to 8 months after the intake GPRA. Note: Because SOR III launched October 1st, the first follow-up windows will open in March 2023.

  • The discharge GPRA is conducted when the client is discharged from treatment/recovery services. This can occur before or after a follow-up GPRA, or even at the same time as the follow-up.

Additional Resources

SOR II Year 2 Quarter 4 Progress Report

We are excited to share the Quarter 4 Progress Report for the SOR II grant. This report focuses on prevention, treatment, and recovery activities from July to September across the state. The report includes data from the quarterly surveys, GPRAs, and the Performance Based Prevention System (PBPS). You can find the report linked here or on the Reports page of the SOR Support website.

 

We hope this report helps highlight all your hard work across the SOR II grant. Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback.

Maximum of One GPRA Intake, Follow-up, and Discharge per Client during SOR III

The OMNI TA Team would like to provide clarity to CSBs/agencies regarding the scenario that occurs when a client who has already completed an intake GPRA is discharged from SOR services (with a discharge GPRA completed) and then returns to SOR services: The returning client should not have another intake GPRA completed. However, if their follow-up GPRA window has not passed, they should still be given a follow-up GPRA when noted in your tracking sheet.

In essence, each client who participates in the evaluation should only ever receive one intake GPRA in the SOR III grant period, regardless of whether they come in and out of SOR services. As a result, there should be a maximum of 3 GPRAs completed per client: 1 Intake, 1 Follow-Up, and 1 Discharge for the duration of SOR III, which runs through September 30, 2024. Note! Clients are still eligible to receive SOR services, they just should not be completing subsequent intake GPRAs.

We hope this new guidance clarifies any confusion and will result in a more straight-forward process for CSB and agency staff. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

New GPRA Information Session Tuesday 11/29/22 at 11am ET

As you may recall from our SOR III Kickoff Training in September and our GPRA Refresher Training in October, SAMHSA has released an updated version of the Intake and Follow-up GPRAs that will be used starting December 10th.

To orient you to these changes, OMNI will hold a one-hour New GPRA Information Session on Tuesday, November 29, 2022 from 11am-noon ET. All staff who administer the GPRA are encouraged to attend.

In this training, the OMNI team will walk you through the changes to the GPRA from top to bottom. Some changes are very minor, but in other cases, new questions have been added and others have been removed.

Overall, we view these changes as an improvement in the content and flow of the GPRA tools and feel you will be pleased to learn of them.

Register in advance for the New GPRA Information Session on November 29th here: Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: OMNI New GPRA Information Session. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Kudos to All for your Contributions during SOR II!

On behalf of the entire OMNI SOR Treatment Evaluation and TA Team, we wanted to congratulate all of you for a job well done in SOR II GPRA data collection! The final numbers are in and Virginia far exceeded our GPRA intake goal as well as exceeded the average intake rate across all states.

A total of 1,749 intake GPRAs were completed last fiscal year (October 2021 - September 2022), and a total of 3,830 were completed for all of SOR II, which spanned from October 2020 through September 2022.

In addition, we'd like to recognize all your efforts to complete the follow-up interviews with clients. A total of 1,246 interview follow-ups were completed along with 622 administrative follow-ups. SAMHSA only counts interview follow-ups, not administrative ones, which resulted in a follow-up rate of 44% for the grant.

We have also heard from many of you about the positive impacts that SOR funding has on the individuals your agency serves and we appreciate all you do day in and day out to make treatment and recovery services available for those who need them. The implementation of the SOR II grant would not have been possible without you, and your hard work ensured that Virginia continued to receive funding for SOR III.

We are now embarking on creating the Statewide Annual Report that documents your great work and shows the results of GPRA interview responses. We will also be preparing and sharing GPRA data reports with each CSBs in the early part of 2023 so that you can see the results from what has been collected.

If your CSB would like a data file with all your GPRA data, you can request that at any time by emailing SORSupport@omni.org.

GPRA Refresher Recording and Materials Now Available!

Thanks to all who were able to join the OMNI Team for our GPRA Refresher Training on Wednesday 10/26!

If you were unable to attend, or if you want to review the content, the following is now available for you on our website (here). Here are direct links:

We did have three questions come up during the training that we want to answer for you here:

Q: If a client receives a GPRA Intake while they are in a justice setting but then move out of the justice setting before their Follow-Up GPRA, are they eligible to receive the Follow-Up gift card?

A: Justice-setting clients cannot receive a gift card. If they do an Intake as part of a justice-setting program but are no longer in that setting and are not considered a justice-setting client by the time they do the Follow-Up GPRA, then they can receive a gift card at that point for their Follow-Up interview. The gift card incentive should not be discussed at the intake GPRA to avoid confusion or coercion.

Q: Why are clients in justice settings not eligible to receive gift cards?

A: Justice-setting populations are vulnerable, and incentives to participation are not ethical as it can be seen as coercion or non-equitable treatment.

Q: Who can receive services covered by SOR-funding?

A: In order for SOR-funding to cover a person's services (i.e., pay for their services because they don't have insurance or cannot afford to pay) they need to either have a stimulant use disorder or an opioid use disorder (OUD). If there are clients who are receiving services from a SOR-funded staff (the staff’s salary is paid by SOR), then the clients are eligible for the GPRA regardless of whether or not they have a stimulant use disorder or an OUD. In the cases where a client does not have a stimulant or OUD but do receive a GPRA, the patient's bill for services cannot be covered by SOR-funding because they do not have the appropriate diagnoses.

We welcome any other follow-up questions that you may have. Reach out to us at SORsupport@omni.org or fill out the TA Request form on our website.

We will keep you posted about upcoming trainings in separate communications.

SOR III GRPA Data Collection Underway - Reminders and Tips

We are now well into the new SOR Fiscal year, which began 10/1/22. This also marked the start of the new SOR III grant period. We wanted to share a few TA tips from our 9/21 Kickoff Training to remind everyone of the transition to SOR III in terms of GPRA completions.

Here are important materials on our website to support the transition from SOR II to SOR III. They are housed in the New to the GPRA Section. Here are direct links:

We welcome any follow-up questions that you may have. Reach out to us at SORsupport@omni.org or fill out the TA Request form on our website.

Reminder! GPRA Refresher Training: Wednesday, 10/26/22, at 11am ET

This is a reminder that OMNI will hold a one-hour GPRA Refresher Training on Wednesday, October 26, 2022 from 11am-noon ET. This will be a higher-level overview of important elements of GPRA completion for anyone who might like a refresher or new staff.

This training will most directly focus on reviewing the requirements and components of the GPRA, and providing tips for administering the survey. We will also point out existing supporting TA resources, documents, and recordings of prior in-depth GPRA trainings housed on our website.

Register in advance for the GPRA Refresher Training on October 26 here: https://omni-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApf-2hqjotH9dk9EZVzQ1KHglvAP_ugJL_

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Prior-recorded trainings available on our website are recommended for those needing a more-thorough review for completing Intake or Follow-up/Discharge GPRAs. You can find those existing trainings here.

In addition, OMNI will be rolling out new trainings for SOR III in the months ahead, including a detailed GPRA Information Session on November 29 to cover content changes in the new GPRA that will start being used December 10, a full GPRA training in later January, and a full follow-up/discharge GPRA training in March. We will announce these trainings in separate news posts soon.

Please share your SOR Treatment & Recovery Success Stories with OMNI and DBHDS!

As we wind down the 2021-22 SOR fiscal year and the SOR II grant period, DBHDS and OMNI are seeking your SOR success stories! We are preparing our year-end reporting and want to hear from you about how your SOR funding is supporting the services you provide in your community.

We have prepared a very simple survey that will easily allow you to share some of your SOR Success Stories, reflecting on the past year. There is also an opportunity to attach documents or photos.

There is no need to be very elaborate or lengthy with your story. For example, you can share a brief few sentences about successes experienced by a particular client (don’t share names or other identifying information), or a successful or unique way you were able to leverage SOR funds to support your agency’s treatment or recovery work. Or, you can provide something with a bit more context.

  • Here are some some very brief quote examples from prior years:

    • “SOR funded the first Supervisor of Peer Specialists, who is also a Peer Specialist at our CSB.”

    • “SOR funding has provided assistance to numerous clients who are not connected to Medicaid or who are ineligible for other insurance.”

  • Below are a couple of more fleshed out success stories that were shared with us and were included in our reporting so you will know how they could be used.

You get the picture! To submit a success story, please click here. We look forward to reading yours!

GPRA Refresher Training: Wednesday, 10/26/22, at 11am ET

OMNI will hold a one-hour GPRA Refresher Training on Wednesday, October 26, 2022 from 11am-noon ET. This will be a higher-level overview of important elements of GPRA completion for new staff or anyone who might like a refresher. This training will most directly focus on reviewing the requirements and components of the GPRA, and providing tips for administering the survey. We will also point out existing supporting TA resources, documents, and recordings of prior in-depth GPRA trainings housed on our website.

Register in advance for the GPRA Refresher Training on October 26 here: https://omni-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApf-2hqjotH9dk9EZVzQ1KHglvAP_ugJL_

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Prior-recorded trainings available on our website are recommended for those needing a more-thorough review for completing Intake or Follow-up/Discharge GPRAs. You can find those existing trainings here.

In addition, OMNI will be rolling out new trainings for SOR III in the months ahead, including a detailed GPRA Information Session on November 29 to cover content changes in the new GPRA that will start being used December 10, a full intake GPRA training in later January, and a full follow-up/discharge GPRA training in March. We will announce these trainings in separate news posts soon.

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.