The Evaluation, Policy and Ethics Division had a number of accomplishments during FY05. Division members were involved in grant proposals and grant awards during the past year. Division members played key roles on grants funded to prevent methamphetamine and inhalant abuse in Southeast Missouri; to develop treatment services for those suffering from both substance abuse and psychiatric disorders; and to provide treatment services to homeless men with co-occurring disorders. Many of the Division’s members were involved in implementing these and other grant-funded activities. Key grant-funded projects that Division members have begun to work on within the past year include the Strategic Prevention Framework - State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG), the Access to Recovery (ATR) project, and a NIDA-funded project to assess addiction treatment for women.
Division members provided services to a number of organizations throughout the year. One member served the University as the Outplacement Supervisor for the St. Louis Clinical Psychology Internship Consortium, as a member of the Health Sciences Institutional Review Board, and as President, Board of Directors, RAVEN, a non-profit, batterers’ education program for men, in St. Louis . Another member represented St. Louis on the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) Community Epidemiology Work Group (CEWG), and as a grant reviewer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Substance Abuse Policy Research Program. Another member has worked closely with the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University participating in the Gerontology Curriculum Work Group and the Gerontology Concentration Advisory Committee. All members have worked closely on projects staffed by the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Members also reviewed manuscripts for the Program Committee of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology annual conference. In the past year members have published an article in Development and Psychopathology and developed three technical reports including a policy review of needle exchange programs. Members have presented at several national conferences including NIDA’s Community Epidemiology Work Group, the American Public Health Association, the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, the AHRQ Translating Research into Practice conference, the Addictions Health Services Research conference, and the NASMHPD Annual Conference.
The Division administers the Policy Information Exchange (PIE) and maintains this web site containing documents relevant to mental health and substance abuse policy. Division members have made ongoing modifications to improve access to PIE materials. More documents and policy briefs have been added to PIE and Division staff is planning a number of other improvements. However, recent funding cuts have dramatically decreased our ability to allocate the human resources necessary to maintain the web site. Further growth of PIE will depend on the Division’s ability to win foundation or other grant support for staff to devote time to its maintenance and growth.
Members of the Evaluation, Policy and Ethics division have played roles on a number of projects housed in other divisions of the Institute. They have provided service and support for a number of efforts including projects serving the homeless, and adolescents receiving substance abuse services. During the past fiscal year, the Division has played host to two graduate students gaining practicum experience. Division members serve on a number of local and statewide committees and respond to numerous information requests in the area of mental health policy.
For the coming year, the Division has established goals in five key areas: grants, publications and presentations, the Policy Information Exchange, services, and planning.
Grants: Our first major goal is to develop grants submitted for funding. This includes grants on which EPE personnel are Principal or Co-Principal Investigators, and those on which staff collaborate with other universities or community-based organizations. Division staff will work with members of the Missouri Department of Mental Health to identify and pursue grant opportunities. The Division will target three major sources of grant funds: the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and various philanthropic foundations.
Publications and presentations: Our second major goal is to increase the number of articles submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. We intend to publish in a variety of areas but will focus on articles addressing aging and mental health, substance abuse epidemiology, and mental health services research. We will also prepare manuscripts on recently presented topics including HIV/AIDS and older substance users, rural substance use, methamphetamine use, and aging members of religious congregations. We plan to continue to make presentations at major conferences.
Policy Information Exchange: Our third major goal is to assess the future of the Policy Information Exchange (PIE) website. Due to reduction of state support, we have been unable to maintain the site at a significant level. If our assessment leads to a desire to maintain and improve the site, we will seek grant or foundation support to do this. To accomplish this, we would develop grant proposals to several foundations requesting support for PIE activities. In addition, we would request funds to support PIE activities on all new grant proposals.
Services: We will continue to provide services to the Missouri Department of Mental Health, national groups such as the Office of National Drug Control Policy and NIDA, academic journals, foundations, and community-based agencies in Missouri .
Planning: Given the current outlook for state support of our efforts, the EPE division needs to begin to more formally develop plans for the coming years. These plans would address future funding of faculty and staff.