West Virginia’s substance use prevention infrastructure has adapted and risen to the challenge of continuing prevention efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through virtual meetings, trainings, and outreach activities, prevention professionals are still working to provide evidence-based programs statewide. The prevention infrastructure, led by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, Bureau for Behavioral Health (BBH), includes statewide and regional prevention collaborations that provide technical support and funding to local prevention coalitions and prevention stakeholders throughout the state. A listing of regional and local prevention contacts is available online at https://helpandhopewv.org/prevention-in-your-region.html.
In April 2020, BBH launched a statewide strategic planning process to develop a unified, comprehensive prevention plan to help strengthen and sustain West Virginia’s prevention infrastructure, including multiple areas of prevention including substance misuse, child abuse, sexual/domestic violence, and suicide. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person meetings were replaced with a series of facilitated, virtual planning sessions with prevention allies and partners to develop a shared vision, core values, and three-year strategic priorities, objectives, and outcomes. Through the implementation of this plan, West Virginia can continue to build the prevention infrastructure and the health and wellness of individuals, families, schools, and communities within the state. To read the WV Prevention Strategic Plan, visithttps://helpandhopewv.org/media.html.
Amid the pandemic, BBH sponsored a virtual state prevention summit in September 2020. Prioritizing Prevention in West Virginia featured national and state leaders in the field utilizing an innovative virtual platform. More than 400 individuals from 18 states attended the free summit, which was funded by the State Opioid Response (SOR) grant through the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The summit engaged state and local policy makers with practitioners and other interested community members to explore and discuss effective policies and practices to help improve the lives of people in West Virginia. Information about the summit is available at https://wvpreventionsummit.org/.
BBH has continued to offer prevention training to state, regional and local prevention stakeholders through virtual platforms to address identified needs. For example, the SAMHSA-funded West Virginia Partnerships for Success (PFS) and Strategic Prevention Framework for Prescription Drugs (SPF Rx) grants, in partnership with Marshall University, have offered a series of virtual trainings on a variety of prevention topics from obtaining/utilizing data for prevention, health disparities, youth empowerment, surveys, and social norms campaigns. Sessions are offered free of charge to prevention and public health professionals, community coalition staff and members, schools, higher education and community members, and organizations serving youth and families. Explore PFS and SPF Rx prevention trainings at https://www.marshall.edu/coefr/education-and-training/.