OMNI Kudos to Mount Rogers CSB for SOR III Follow-Up Interview GPRA Rate

For this month's Kudos, we would like to highlight Mount Rogers! This agency has demonstrated a high interview follow-up rate of 70%, putting them on target to meet the SAMHSA-required follow-up interview rate of 80%.

We acknowledge that follow-up interviews can be tricky and challenging to capture. To support other CSBs and agencies, Mount Rogers has shared some of their best practices and tips with us:

  • Tip 1: We’ve designated one person to be responsible for reviewing the report/tracking sheet and sending reminders out to staff responsible for follow-ups. She’s also responsible for answering questions staff may have.  We think having a single point person has streamlined communication in this area. Several staff commented that she has been instrumental in this process.

  • Tip 2: SOR GPRA’s are on every agenda for regular meetings held by the programs required to complete them. This offers both a friendly reminder to existing staff as well as an opportunity to orient new staff who may not have been informed upon hire. It’s stressed to staff how integral these surveys are to receiving funding to help people.

  • Tip 3: One of our amazing peers shared: “If I am able to get in touch with the individuals that have taken part in the GPRA survey they usually always agree to complete the follow-up and discharge portions. I make sure to emphasize how much we appreciate them taking the time to participate in the survey and how important their experiences in recovery are in helping to determine future programs, seeing if the programs are working, and what resources our community may need to better serve individuals with substance use disorders. Most of the individuals say that helping others in recovery is important to them.”    

~ KJ Holbrook, LCSW

We congratulate KJ and the Mount Rogers team as they continue to engage and support their clients in their treatment journey and support OMNI in the "spirit of inquiry."

We know that everyone is working hard toward meeting the SAMHSA Follow-up Interview rate of 80%. We also want to remind everyone of a few helpful resources:

  • To facilitate follow-up conversations with clients the Follow-up Reminder Script resource helps generate ideas and tips for each level of engagement with GPRA clients.

  • The GPRA Administration Tips and Best Practices Sheet provides tips on setting up an internal tracking system to help your organization efficiently complete GPRAs and other helpful tips around GPRA completion.

  • The Client Engagement Sheet is designed to be shared directly with clients to inform them about the GPRA’s purpose and what it means to be involved in the evaluation. The section “Why do a follow-up GPRA?”, on page 2, highlights the benefits to the client, the providers, and the community.

If you have questions about this, need support with any aspect of GPRA administration, or have your own helpful tips/processes to share, please get in touch with our team at OMNI at SORsupport@omni.org.

OMNI Kudos to Henrico CSB for SOR III Follow-Up Interview GPRA Rate

For this month's Kudos, we would like to highlight Henrico; this agency has demonstrated a high interview follow-up rate of 62%. This rate is on target to hit the 80% Follow-up Interview rate that SAMHSA requires.

We acknowledge that Follow-up Interviews can be tricky and challenging to capture. To support other CSBs and agencies, Henrico was able to share some of their best practices and tips with us:

“We utilize a collaborative team approach to complete GPRA surveys. We recognize that our wonderful peers connect with individuals on a different level than clinicians and case managers, and we have found it beneficial to have our peers facilitate GPRAs.

Preferred Language for Speaking About Substance Use and Reducing Harm

In a collaborative effort to build awareness around the topic of harm reduction for individuals experiencing addiction, we would like to share some guiding best practices. As experts in the field of substance use treatment and recovery, you may already be aware of this guidance, but it seemed like a good opportunity to reinforce these practices for all of us.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) emphasizes the importance of using appropriate and non-stigmatizing language when discussing addiction. They suggest that the words we use can either contribute to stigma and discrimination that may cause harm to the individual or promote understanding and empathy toward individuals struggling with addiction.

Reminder to Click "Submit" When Completing GPRAs

Recently, there have been cases where completed GPRA intakes or follow-ups were not showing up on the weekly tracking sheets for some CSBs/Agencies. This discrepancy often occurs when you get to the end of a GPRA survey but don’t click "submit".

It is important to click "submit" at the end of each survey to ensure that completed GPRAs are accurately tracked and credited. This final step confirms the completion process and guarantees that all GPRAs are properly recorded on your weekly tracking sheets, which helps track when follow-ups are due. Additionally, hitting “submit” at the end prompts a confirmation email to be sent (if requested). Otherwise, you will not receive a confirmation email and the survey will not count.

Steps to Follow:

  1. Complete the GPRA survey as usual.

  2. Before closing the survey, make sure to click through to the end and click the "submit" button, as shown below.

  3. Once submitted, the completed GPRA will be recorded and you will receive a confirmation email (if requested). The survey should then appear in your next tracking sheet.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out to our TA Team at SORSupport@omni.org.

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

Now that we are well into the second 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 compiling 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 treatment and recovery 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 to access the survey.

You can also submit a success story at any time throughout the year by visiting the survey’s permanent home on the SOR Support website here.

OMNI Kudos to CSBs/Agencies Meeting Their SOR III Year 2 Intake GPRA Target Numbers!

We are continuing to share some kudos about CSBs or Agencies doing well with intakes, follow-ups, engaging and supporting clients, and 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 to CSBs and agencies meeting their SOR III Year 2 intake target! As we’re about halfway through Year 2, the following 3 CSBs/agencies have all reached at least 100% or more of their intake targets:

  • Southside CSB

  • DOC

  • Portsmouth

Kudos! We know that everyone is working hard toward meeting their intake targets as set by DBHDS this year. Please continue to monitor your tracking sheet and schedule your Follow-up GPRA interviews accordingly.

Our TA Team is available to help if you have questions about any aspect of the GPRA administration or would like tips on best practices. As always, feel free to reach out to us at SORsupport@omni.org.

Reminder: Timelines of SOR Grant Period and Grant Years

We have recently received an influx of questions about the SOR grant period and grant year timelines and how the GPRA surveys fit into each, so we wanted to share a high-level breakdown to elaborate on these different time points.

 

Current SOR 3 Grant Period: October 1st, 2022 – September 30th, 2024

- SOR 3, Grant Year 1: October 1st, 2022 – September 30th, 2023

- SOR 3, Grant Year 2: October 1st, 2023 – September 30th, 2024

 

The Current SOR 3 Grant Period refers to the entire duration during which the SOR 3 grant is active, spanning from October 1st, 2022, to September 30th, 2024. Within this period, we have two grant years:

Grant Year 1: running from October 1st, 2022, to September 30th, 2023. This marks the initial year of the grant’s implementation in SOR 3. It is also the federal fiscal year of 2022-23.

Grant Year 2: following Grant Year 1, this period spans from October 1st, 2023, to September 30th, 2024, concluding the grant’s SOR 3 term. It is also the federal fiscal year of 2023-24.

Our intake and discharge GPRA guidelines during the grant period are:

  • Only one intake GPRA and one discharge GPRA should be completed for each client within the two-year grant period, not a single grant year.

  • If a client returns to services after having already completed an intake and discharge GPRA in the same 2-year grant period, they should not undergo another set of intake and discharge GPRAs.

As always, if you have any questions, please reach out to us at SORSupport@omni.org.

SOR III Year 1 CSB/Agency-level GPRA Intake Reports Now Available in Dropbox

OMNI is pleased to share a customized GPRA Intake report for your CSB/Agency. Similar to the full statewide report, your agency report contains compiled GPRA data specific to your CSB/Agency from the SOR III Year 1 period (October 2022 through September 2023). This reflects Year 5 of the SOR Grant.

  • CSBs/Agencies are provided with an Intake report. This report contains demographic and baseline characteristics of your clientele cohort.

  • In the past, we were able to also provide an Outcomes report that included demographic and baseline characteristics and matched “outcomes” based on follow-up or discharge data. However, because of the shift to a new GPRA tool, we were not able to produce outcomes reports at the CSB/Agency level this year due to a low sample size and lack of comparability.

  • You can still review the outcomes section of the main report, which shows aggregate change/outcomes.

The intake reports only include aggregated data. To ensure confidentiality in reporting, there must be 10 or more responses for each GPRA question. As such, individual GPRA questions with less than 10 responses were not included in the report and are marked with a "N/A.”

You may wish to compare your report data with the full SOR Annual Report findings, linked here and also available in the Reports section of the Virginia SOR Support website.

Your report(s) can be found in your agency’s Dropbox folder. If you have any questions or feedback regarding the report or want to chat about the results, please don't hesitate to contact us at SORSupport@omni.org.

SOR Year 5 Annual Report Now Available

We are excited to share that the SOR Year 5 Annual Report is now available on the SOR Support website. This report covers evaluations from the fifth year of SOR funding for prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery, and examines multiple data sources, including GPRAs and quarterly surveys. You can find the full report here, and on the SOR Support website under the 'Reports' tab. A short executive summary is available here.

We thank everyone for your data collection efforts, collaboration, and, most of all, the incredible amount of work accomplished by agencies and their communities under this grant!

If you have any questions about either report, feel free to reach out to us at SORSupport@omni.org.

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.