Happy New Year from the Office of Rural Health

With the New Year comes a new name for this blog.  It’s now called Rural Health and Community Development.  This reflects my interest in providing you with a variety of resources and information on both rural health and economic and community development.  Besides (obviously) working on rural health issues, we also try to identify and advance the connections between health policy and development.  For example, we are members of the Rural Health Development Council, a governor’s advisory group working on examining those connections and promoting policies that improve both rural health and development.

 

I’ve made a New Year’s goal (I don’t believe in resolutions): to be more conscientious about posting!  Last month, especially, I was pretty lax.  So, this post has some catching up.

 

December was National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month.  Here are some grants and other resources that can help you address these problems in your community.

 

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment is accepting proposals for two programs:   

 

  • Local Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care grants will fund programs that “address gaps in treatment capacity by supporting person-centered and self-directed approaches for substance abuse treatment and recovery services in communities with serious drug problems.”  They will grant up to $400,000/year up to three years for eligible community-based proposals.  Applications are due January 14.
  • Grants for Juvenile Treatment Drug Courts are available to develop or expand “problem solving courts which use the juvenile drug court model in order to provide alcohol and drug treatment, recovery support services … and program coordination to juvenile defendants/offenders.”  They will award up to 27 grants; apply by February 23.  These are both federal grants, which can mean a lot of paperwork—I won’t lie.  But these are significant amounts that can help in creating comprehensive regional/local programs.

 

An article last year reported that after recent declines in methamphetamine production, primarily due to federal restrictions on key ingredient sales, production is increasing, especially in rural areas.  As one state drug agency representative said, “Restrictions did their job for a while, but [methamphetamine producers] found a way to get around them.”  One method is “smurfing”; groups travel to different drug stores buying the maximum amounts of restricted ingredients.  The problem, especially in rural communities, is that most drug stores don’t have shared databases of these purchases, making it difficult to identify multiple sales. 

 

The National Council on Patient Information and Education, along with other organizations, has developed a toolkit to assist in combating drug abuse, Maximizing Your Role as a Teen Influencer: What You Can Do To Help Prevent Teen Prescription Drug Abuse.   The goal is to “equip teen influencers — parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, community and school-based healthcare providers and others — with information about teen prescription drug abuse and strategies for preventative actions.”  The toolkit on the website includes a Powerpoint presentation introducing the program, role-play scenarios and handouts.  All for free!  

 

Finally, I literally just got a notice of an online UW Professional Development course:  Introduction to Researching and Writing Grants.  The four-week course begins January 27.  You’ll learn basic principles of preparing successful grant applications including how to develop your idea, identify funding sources, write needs statements and budgets.  Contact Ann Whitaker (or 800-442-4617) for more information.  I know people who’ve taken this course and found it quite valuable. 

January 5, 2010 · KJacobson · One Comment
Tags: , , , , , ,  Â· Posted in: Grant Advice, Reports and Studies, Training and Tools

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