SPRC Home> SAMHSA Grantees> Technical Assistance Meeting December 10-12, 2007, Workshop Descriptions

State, Tribal, and Adolescents at Risk Suicide Prevention Grantee
Technical Assistance Meeting
December 10-12, 2007
Portland, Oregon

Telling the Story: A Pathway to Sustain Suicide Prevention Programs

Sunday & Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday

Workshop Descriptions:

Monday, December 10, 2007
Concurrent Workshops I

1A Evaluating early intervention and referral is intended primarily for evaluators to focus on EIRF. This presentation will focus on common barriers to and successful strategies for collecting information about service access and utilization for youth identified at-risk for suicide. Facilitators will present findings based on cross-site evaluation data as well the implications this data collection have had at the local level in terms of both program evaluation and program development.

1B Linking Adolescents at Risk for Suicide to Mental Health Services grantees meeting is intended primarily for these grantees to focus on challenges and strategies for sustainability. Discussion will be captured by SPRC for later use as a brief document.

1C GLSMA Tribal grantees meeting is intended primarily for tribal grantees to talk among themselves in a facilitated session that will model processes that the participants can take back and use in their communities. The session will feature considerable group discussion, sharing of grantee experiences, and problem-solving.  Potential topics include the importance of dealing with loss, management of change, building culturally competent networks, addressing the stigma of suicide, and using a strength-based approach that focuses on protective and persistent factors and resilience.

1D Opportunities and challenges of working with state coalitions is intended primarily for state grantees. State coalition building can be a challenging, rewarding, and never-ending process that involves identifying, engaging, and leading representatives from diverse backgrounds and with differing histories of working together. This session will address the opportunities, challenges, and process of building partnerships with your state coalition as a strategy for sustainability. State grantees will hear from their peers in Cohorts I and II, who will present their unique experiences, strategies, and lessons learned; there will be ample time for group discussion.

1E Tell your story well: Communicating your findings for sustainability will provide participants with the skills to use their program findings effectively for sustainability by reviewing core concepts of communications to get into participants into a “marketing mindset”. Participants will understand the very different roles of communications and evaluation – and how they can align to support sustainability – and will learn skills to take findings and tell the story of their program in ways that will motivate audiences to support their efforts. The workshop is repeated on Tuesday.

1F Hospital/Emergency room-based identification, response, and referral is based on a successful workshop from last year’s meeting, focused on implementing suicide prevention and intervention within these settings, and bridging to community resources. Emergency room departments are critical settings for interventions for youth at risk for suicide. In addition, it is crucial that ER staff is trained to educate parents and caregivers of youth who are assessed to be at risk for suicide. This session contains some didactic information, yet also includes considerable group discussion, allows Grantees to share challenges, successes, and solutions in implementing hospital/ER based suicide prevention projects.

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Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Concurrent Workshops II

2A Using evaluation data to improve program performance will feature several case studies of grantees that are currently using evaluation data to improve the performance of their program.  Models of process and formative evaluation will be provided and their relationship to sustainability discussed. This session is for non-evaluators but everyone is welcome.  

2B Challenges and opportunities when working with schools and school systems will be relevant for any grantee working in school-based settings. Schools provide a wonderful opportunity for connecting suicide prevention program efforts directly with youth. Forming effective working relationships with schools and school systems is important for program implementation, yet forming such relationships can be difficult, particularly for those who are not school-employed personnel. This group of panelists will share some of the challenges they have encountered when working with schools, some of the lessons learned about school culture, and how they have navigated barriers that could have prevented successful program implementation.

2C Storytelling traditions and the personal story as applied to suicide prevention. How can personal stories make compelling arguments for sustainability? What happens when the personal story is at odds with the data? Story-telling can be a powerful tradition and can frame – or limit – your endeavor. If no personal stories are told, are we increasing stigma? This workshop will explore these issues and the story behind “the story”.

2D Lessons learned about evaluating and measuring training will provide an opportunity for project evaluators to share and discuss what they have learned about measuring and evaluating the range of training activities funded by GLSMA grants. First, evaluators representing diverse training activities will briefly describe their training activities and audiences, evaluation approaches (including whether and how they supplemented the Training Exit Survey), and lessons learned about training evaluation. A representative from Macro International will discuss her experiences administering the Training Utilization and Penetration (TUP) interview protocol. Other participants will be invited to share their own experiences with training evaluation, ask questions of one another, and raise related questions for group discussion. This session is intended for evaluators, but everyone is welcome.

2E Tell your story well: Communicating your findings for sustainability will provide participants with the skills to use their program findings effectively for sustainability by reviewing core concepts of communications to get into participants into a "marketing mindset". Participants will understand the very different roles of communications and evaluation - and how they can align to support sustainability - and will learn skills to take findings and tell the story of their program in ways that will motivate audiences to support their efforts. This workshop is being repeated from Monday.2E Tell your story well: Communicating your findings for sustainability will provide participants with the skills to use their program findings effectively for sustainability by reviewing core concepts of communications to get into participants into a "marketing mindset". Participants will understand the very different roles of communications and evaluation - and how they can align to support sustainability - and will learn skills to take findings and tell the story of their program in ways that will motivate audiences to support their efforts. This workshop is being repeated from Monday.

2F Responding to returning veterans and their families focuses on Oregon’s successful National Guard Reintegration Program.

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Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Concurrent Workshops III

3A Applying lessons learned from gatekeeper and natural helper activities.Many youth suicide prevention programs use gatekeeper or natural helper activities as an essential part of their approach. This workshop is an opportunity to consider the following questions: What are we learning in our individual grant programs, and, collectively, about gatekeeping? How have we overcome barriers, incorporated changes, modified our approach, or communicated about gatekeeping to stakeholders? And how can we best use these lessons to improve our programs, promote youth suicide prevention and sustain our programs? The session will focus on a few specific examples as a way of introducing facilitated discussion of these topics, and include lessons from local and cross-site evaluations as well as program experiences.

3B Promoting sustainability through evaluation participation and stakeholder involvement will explore various methods for increasing evaluation participation rates. Grantees will also work together to identify and discuss various methods for gaining stakeholder involvement and will understand how to transform these strategies into real world applications for sustainability. Grantees will share their experiences in gaining stakeholder buy-in and strategies for increasing evaluation participation.

3C Tribes and states working together repeats a popular session from last year’s meeting to help non-Native persons and organizations better understand cultural and historical issues. Persons participating in this session should develop knowledge and skills that will aid them in their interactions with Native Americans and Alaskan Natives and assist in developing true partnerships and respectful collaborations.

3D National Violent Death Reporting System data – using data for prevention and sustainability will be relevant to all states, whether or not your state participates in the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). Seventeen states now participate in NVDRS data collection and analysis. How does your data compare with that from NVDRS? How can that comparison be used to promote your case? Oregon will describe how they are integrating NVDRS data into their GLSMA program.

3E Are you doing your best (practice)? Selecting and using best practices in your program will explore concepts and tools related to best practices and evidence-based programs in suicide prevention work. The presenters will provide an overview of SPRC/AFSP’s Best Practices Registry for Suicide Prevention (BPR) and SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP) and describe how to submit applications to these registries. The session will include interactive discussion among participants about the concept of “evidence-based prevention” and its implications for prevention work, considerations for choosing and/or adapting best practices, how to ensure individual practices fit into a comprehensive program, use of best practice criteria for program improvement, and leveraging best practices for sustainability.

3F Comprehensive school-based suicide prevention. The interventions in a school-based approach use best practices to respond to crises and proactively promote mental health through interventions such as gatekeeper and life skills training. We will explore whether school-based approaches address universal, selective, and indicated audiences. The school setting may require new policies and protocols and collaboration with non-school agencies, important strategies for sustainability. Three programs will describe their approaches, and two will show video segments used in training.

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Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Concurrent Workshops IV

4A Evaluation open Q&A session repeats a popular session from last year’s meeting. This session will provide program evaluators and others with an opportunity to raise and discuss unresolved evaluation issues. The facilitators and participants will address questions such as measurement of program outcomes, relationship of local and cross-site evaluation, and linking evaluation with sustainability. 

4B Screening lessons learned. Many youth suicide prevention programs use screening activities as an essential part of their approach. What are we learning in our individual grant programs, and collectively, about screening? How have we overcome barriers, incorporated changes, modified our approach, or communicated about screening to stakeholders? How can we best use these lessons to improve our programs, promote youth suicide prevention and sustain our programs?

4C Project management tips and tricks repeats a popular workshop from last year’s meeting to provide project managers with ideas and information to help them to better manage their SAMHSA-funded project. Persons participating in this session should develop knowledge and skills that will aid them in their efforts to plan, execute, and monitor progress in complex program efforts that involve multiple staff members and partners. This workshop will review phases and elements of project management including working with sub-grantees and subcontractors. Throughout the workshop, participants will be encouraged to share their experiences and knowledge and to raise questions and concerns regarding their efforts to manage their projects.

4D Developing partnerships with spiritual and faith-based entities. Spiritual and faith-based groups have significant potential contributions to make to suicide prevention efforts. Learning about the ongoing efforts for preventing suicide among the diverse faith-based and spiritual communities in any one geographic area and linking these efforts with those of GLS grantees can enhance the scope and capacity of suicide prevention. The efforts of grantees to address this important partner in suicide prevention are discussed in this workshop.   

4E Coping with provider shortages: A challenge for rural and frontier grantees is an interactive facilitated workshop designed to encourage grantees to share their unique challenges as well as effective strategies related to provider shortages. This session will feature grantees’ experiences, and will have considerable group discussion and problem-solving. Potential topics include integrating mental health and primary care services, tele-health approaches, coordinating with crisis services and the Lifeline network, integrating traditional and western practices, cultural competency for providers, workforce/capacity building, and enhancing collaboration with IHS services.

4F A cultural approach to prevention. In the Pacific Northwest, canoe journeys have been a way of involving families and youth in traditional healing customs through canoe building, training and paddling. This presentation will describe the program and allow us to hear from young adult participants.

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Last updated on: April 8, 2008