OMNI Kudos to CSBs/Agencies with SOR III Intake Target Completion!

OMNI Kudos to CSBs/Agencies Meeting Their SOR III FY22-23 Intake GPRA Target Numbers!

We are continuing to share some kudos about CSBs or Agencies that are doing well with intakes, follow-ups, engaging and supporting clients, and/or those that demonstrate a "spirit of inquiry" when engaging with our TA Team on GPRA administration issues.

This month, we’d like to share kudos for numerous CSBs and Agencies for meeting their SOR III Year 1 intake target! We are about 85% of the way through Year 1 and the following 18 CSBs and Agencies have all reached at least 100% or more of their intake targets. Kudos!

CSBs/Agencies

  • Alexandria

  • Alleghany Highlands

  • Arlington

  • Caritas

  • Chesapeake Opioid IOP CCAP

  • Goochland-Powhatan

  • Highlands

  • Loudoun

  • Middle Peninsula Northern Neck

  • New River Valley

  • Norfolk

  • Northwestern

  • Piedmont

  • Planning District 1

  • Portsmouth

  • Prince William

  • Southside CSB

  • Valley

We know that everyone is working hard toward meeting their intake target as set out by DBHDS this year. Please pay close attention to your tracking sheet and schedule your Follow-up GPRA interviews accordingly.

The TA Team is available to help if you have questions about any aspect of GPRA administration or would like any tips on best practices. If so, please reach out to our team at SORsupport@omni.org

SOR III Monthly Progress Reports: Follow-up Sections Added

The monthly progress reports have been uploaded to your agency’s dropbox folder. The report has historically included the number of Intake GPRAs your agency has completed, as well as your agency’s progress towards its Intake target. Starting this month, the report also includes a figure showing Follow-Up Type Among Those With Closed Windows (Figure 4). This figure illustrates the follow-up status of clients whose follow-up windows have closed, sorting them into three categories:

  1. The number of Interview Follow-Ups that were completed (teal)

  2. The number of Administrative Follow-Ups that were completed (dark blue)

  3. The number of clients with No Follow-Up Completed (gray)

If you have any questions regarding the SOR III monthly progress reports, please feel free to reach out to us at SORSupport@omni.org.

Next SOR Grant Year Information (Reminder)

Greetings, Virginia SOR Subgrantees

 

As we’re rolling into the final quarter of SOR III, Year 1, we wanted to touch base on a few things.

  1. There WILL be a SOR III, Year 2. -- September 30th, 2023 to September 29, 2024.

  2. We WILL be issuing individual treatment and recovery award amounts (with further instructions) once we receive notification from SAMHSA finalizing Virginia’s SOR III, Year 2 award amount.

  3. Your treatment and recovery award amount notifications will include proposal due dates and other relevant instructions.

  4. Proposals WILL NOT be submitted through WebGrants this year, as we were previously told.

  5. If you received approval for funding this year for a position (wage or salary) that you have been unable to fill so far, and suspect that it will remain vacant through the end of this grant year, please do not include this position in your proposal for the coming year.

  6. Proposal narratives should be submitted in MS Word or PDF. Budgets must be in Excel spreadsheet format. (We’ll remind you at least two more times of this.)

 

Information regarding SOR Prevention will be communicated through the Virginia Prevention Works portal.

I think that’s all for now. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Mike Zohab or me.

 

Thanks so much!

 

Angela Weight

SOR Grant Programming Coordinator

Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services

(804) 297-5457

Next SOR Grant Year Information

Greetings, Virginia SOR Subgrantees

 

As we’re rolling into the final quarter of SOR III, Year 1, we wanted to touch base on a few things.

  1. There WILL be a SOR III, Year 2. -- September 30th, 2023 to September 29, 2024.

  2. We WILL be issuing individual treatment and recovery award amounts (with further instructions) once we receive notification from SAMHSA finalizing Virginia’s SOR III, Year 2 award amount.

  3. Your treatment and recovery award amount notifications will include proposal due dates and other relevant instructions.

  4. Proposals WILL NOT be submitted through WebGrants this year, as we were previously told.

  5. If you received approval for funding this year for a position (wage or salary) that you have been unable to fill so far, and suspect that it will remain vacant through the end of this grant year, please do not include this position in your proposal for the coming year.

  6. Proposal narratives should be submitted in MS Word or PDF. Budgets must be in Excel spreadsheet format. (We’ll remind you at least two more times of this.)

 

Information regarding SOR Prevention will be communicated through the Virginia Prevention Works portal.

I think that’s all for now. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Mike Zohab or me.

 

Thanks so much!

 

Angela Weight

SOR Grant Programming Coordinator

Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services

(804) 297-5457

OMNI Kudos to Alexandria CSB for SOR III Intake and Follow-up Interview GPRA Rates

We are continuing to share some kudos about CSBs or Agencies that are doing well with intakes, follow-ups, engaging and supporting clients, and/or those that demonstrate a "spirit of inquiry" when engaging with our TA Team on GPRA administration issues.

This month, we are highlighting Alexandria CSB. In our recent one-on-one meeting between OMNI and their team, we reviewed their GPRA rates: Alexandria has met 98% of their Intake GPRA goal for the fiscal year (63 of 64) and have a 100% interview GPRA follow-up rate so far! The Alexandria team has been working hard on monitoring their GPRA workflows and due dates and are showing strong effort in completing these important GPRA interviews at intake and follow-up. Kudos!

We know that everyone is working hard toward meeting their intake goal as set out by DBHDS this year. We also want to make special note of the fact that the first Follow-up Windows to open for SOR III were in March and have recently begun to close in June. Please pay close attention to your tracking sheet to keep tabs on those and schedule your Follow-up GPRA interviews accordingly.

With the increased workloads due to Follow-up windows opening in general, we want to make sure all CSBs/agencies know that the TA Team is available to help if you have questions about any aspect of GPRA administration or would like any tips on best practices. If so, please reach out to our team at SORsupport@omni.org

OMNI Apologies for Multiple Duplicated Alerts!

The weekly follow-up reminders have been sent today to remind CSBs of upcoming GPRA Follow-Up Windows Closing. Due to upgrading to the new outlook and technical issues, this email was accidentally sent 3 times. We apologize for the inconvenience and technical glitch. We are working to correct this for the future so that this does not reoccur. We thank you for your patience and understanding with us!

If you have any questions regarding the email about upcoming follow-ups, please feel free to reach out to us at SORSupport@omni.org.

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

Now that we are well into the first year of SOR III, we thought it would be a good time to remind you that DBHDS and OMNI are always interested in receiving and learning of any SOR success stories! We are compile these throughout the year to use in our year-end reporting. We’d love 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.

To submit a success story, please click here.

SAMHSA, DOL and OASH Funding Opportunities and Recruiting/Retention Event

The following announcement is from SAMSHA:

Regional Colleagues,

We’ve been fortunate to cross paths with many of you recently during a wide array of in person engagements. As the result of participating in a Philadelphia xylazine summit, a Maryland 988 event, DC SUD Provider visit, a Fentanyl Awareness Day series in Virginia including three locations, we are more aware of your successes and the priorities you deem most important. As always, we thank you for everything you are doing to assist individuals access their “many paths to recovery” options while being mindful of your own selfcare needs and resources.

A keep gap that needs attention across the region continues to be workforce – so let us remind those who have not done so -

Registration is still open for the 5.23.23 Region 3 Recruiting and Retention Interactive Virtual event: Link

As you can see below, there are many exciting funding opportunities open. With a quick scan, you’ll know if your organization is eligible to apply. Funding opportunities are also available via your states, foundations, and many associations. If you have a great idea to implement and funding or other issues are barriers, please reach out to us if you would like to explore possible solutions.

We are anticipating a busier than usual next few months due to several planned SAMHSA HQ and Region 3 hosted in-person convenings, site visits, conference or virtual presentations, and summer vacations. Our recurring standing learning collaborative virtual meetings will continue as usual. That said, if there is a topic or collaboration that you deem suitable for consideration, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Enthusiastically yours,

Jeanne and Jean

Funding Opportunities

  1. SAMHSA

  1. Outreach and Engagement Strategies for Underserved Racial and Ethnic Communities Behavioral Health Equity Challenge - Submission will be accepted until June 8, 2023 at 5pm ET

The Challenge fund has $500,000 available for up to ten awards through this competition. Four awards will be dedicated to the winning strategies that address mental health; three awards will be dedicated to the winning strategies that address substance use prevention; three awards will be dedicated to the winning strategies that address substance use treatment, respectively. The goal of this Challenge is to identify and highlight Community-Based Organizations’ (CBO) innovative outreach and engagement strategies that improve access to behavioral health services in these communities.

  1. Minority AIDS Initiative: The Substance Use and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Prevention Navigator Program for Racial/Ethnic Minorities - Application Due: June 20, 2023

Anticipated Total Available Funding: Up to $10,300,000 Anticipated Number of Awards: 34 (at least two awards will be made to tribes/tribal organizations pending adequate application volume.)

  1. Cooperative Agreements for States and Territories to Improve Local 988 Capacity - Application Due: June 26, 2023

Anticipated Total Available Funding: $177,350,611 Anticipated Number of Awards: 56

  1. Cooperative Agreements for 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Crisis Center Follow-Up Programs - Application Due: June 26, 2023

Anticipated Total Available Funding: $5,000,000 Anticipated Number of Awards: 10

  1. Preventing Youth Overdose: Treatment, Recovery, Education, Awareness and Training - Application Due: June 27, 2023

Anticipated Total Available Funding: Up to $1,900,000 Anticipated Number of Awards: 4

  1. Support for 988 Tribal Response Cooperative Agreements - Application Due: July 18, 2023

Anticipated Total Available Funding: $17,800,000 Anticipated Number of Awards: 9 to 71

  1. DOL and HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health Funding Opportunities

  1. DOL Employment and Training Administration Funding Opportunity Workforce Opportunities for Rural Communities (WORC) Round 5: A Grant Initiative for the Appalachian, Delta, and Northern Border Regions - Application Due: June 13, 2023
    Anticipated Total Available Funding: $44,200,000   Anticipated Number of Awards: 35

Announcements

  1. SAMHSA Launches: FindSupport.gov A site designed to help you answer questions and find support for issues with mental health, drugs, or alcohol. Check out new resources on our Mental Health Awareness Month Toolkit

  2. SAMHSA, DEA Extend COVID-19 Telemedicine Flexibilities For Prescribing Controlled Medications For Six Months While Considering Comments From the Public… extends COVID-19 PHE telemedicine flexibilities 5.11.23-11.22.

  3. HHS Office for Civil Rights Announces the Expiration of COVID-19 HIPAA Enforcement Discretion and Transition Period for Telehealth…Providers required to follow HIPAA have  90-day transition period (ending August 9, 2023) to full compliance regarding telehealth. Includes use of non-public facing applications that allow for video chat…

  4. SAMHSA, FDA Issue New Dear Colleague Regarding Medications for Substance Use Disorders and Counseling …letter issued promoting the medication-first model. “Patient-centered care should be at the heart of OUD treatment…

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 by emailing SORSupport@omni.org.

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, substance use, 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 GPRA 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). All clients with a stimulant use disorder or OUD whose services are being paid for with SOR funds should complete a GPRA.

In addition, 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.

When are GPRAs Administered?

All clients should be administered the GPRA survey at three time points: 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 time points:

  • 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. SOR III launched on October 1st, so the first follow-up windows opened starting 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

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.