Substance Use Prevention Coalition Assesses Community Resources

[August 17, 2023] 

After a brief summer hiatus, the Substance Use Prevention Coalition (SUPC) met at Lincoln Memorial Hospital (LMH) on Thursday for their August meeting to assess the available programs and resources for substance use and prevention in Logan County. The mission of SUPC is to “promote awareness of substance use disorder, prevent youth substance use, and improve access to resources.” Members of area community organizations gathered in the Steinfort Conference rooms at LMH to analyze and discuss the coalition’s Strategy Portfolio Map, which outlined the SUPC summer assessment of programming. The goals of the summer assessment were to find areas where growth in resources is needed and to identify SUPC’s targets for support. Nadia Klekamp of Chesnut Health Systems led discussion of the Strategy Portfolio Map by phone.

The SUPC Strategy Portfolio Map follows the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) published by the American Psychiatric Association for its indicators, meaning populations the SUPC aims to serve are grouped according to DSM definitions. Groups that are “Indicated” are “those who are known to exhibit the behavior you are seeking to address.” In the case of SUPC, the behavior being addressed is substance use. Groups that are “Selective” are those who are “at-risk of exhibiting the behavior.” A “Universal” group is the general focus audience the organization is trying to serve.

The SUPC further organizes populations into four categories for support: individuals, families, schools, and the community. For example, for “Indicated” Individuals, there are resources such as the Mobile Crisis Team and Logan County Jail Recovery meetings and for “Universal” in the Community category Safe Ride, 211, and www.logancountyresources.org provide general support, among many other Logan County services and organizations.

After examining each category, the coalition members discussed what existing resources are missing and should appear on the list or should be moved to a different category. The Strategy Portfolio Map also allowed members to spot categories where needs may not be being filled.

Klekamp concluded the discussion by briefly presenting identified gaps in resources and then offered a plan for next steps. The Tasks for the Coalition that Klekamp introduced are: 1) To recognize gaps and find opportunities to fill those gaps. 2) To provide support for best practices already established. 3) To take inventory of programs implemented within schools, make recommendations, and support the programs schools are willing to implement. 4) To conduct an environmental scan of Logan County. More information about Task 4 will be presented at SUPC’s September meeting.

[Stephanie Hall]