OD2A Mini-Grant Success Stories

Missoula City-County (MCC) Health Department: SUDs in the Workplace

The goal of SUDs in the Montana Workplace project is to improve the capacity of workplaces in Montana to foster an environment that promotes the health and wellbeing of employees living with substance use disorder.

This was the third year of the SUDs in the Workplace project. Six presentations about substance use disorder (SUD) were given to twenty-six people. The online, asynchronous workplace, Just Five, was also offered. The training is all about substance use disorders, and this year, 392 people completed the course. Missoula City-County partnered with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry. They were able to train their supervisors and managers. During the month of May, they offered the asynchronous training to all their employees in honor of Mental Health Month. In addition to training, a presentation was also given to the statewide Substance Use Disorder Taskforce, which includes prevention specialists, treatment providers, harm reduction organizations, and many others from across the state. It was an excellent opportunity for collaboration and connecting with communities doing similar work.

The Just Five training was able to be continued this year, as they found that the training shows very promising results. Using quantitative methods to evaluate the effectiveness of the online, asynchronous training, an assessment was made based off of changes of understanding, attitudes, and beliefs about substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and stigma, before and after the training.

Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies-The Montana Coalition

Mission Statement:

"The mission of Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies is to improve the health, safety, and well being of Montana families by supporting mothers and babies, age zero to three."

The Safe Sleep for Families/Rest Easier project is a multi-generational approach to support new mothers and their babies. The project increases safe sleep, nurturing relationships and environments for babies, thus reducing the risks associated with opioid use disorder and substance use disorder for mothers and their babies.

The Essentials for Baby Program provides car seats installed by certified technicians and portable cribs with safe sleep materials to support service partners, such as public health departments and home visiting services throughout the state. By doing this, the program drives families to other support services in their communities.

An essential partner in a rural community recently expressed gratitude for the program, saying that "the provision of crib kits and car seats reduces stress on families, so parents and caregivers are less likely to turn to substance use."

Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Vision: "There will be a safe and healthy beginning for all babies in Montana."

BBBS of Butte-Silver Bow County

Mission Statement:

"Create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth."

Big Brother Big Sisters is the only prevention program in Montana that affects a spectrum of risk factors such as delinquency, alcohol, and drug use, while also helping children reach their highest potential.

Big and Little Successes

Erica and Allie

Erica and Allie have been matched since the end of February in the community based program. They are continuing to have a blast getting to know each other over hot cocoa and coloring pages at City Brew. Erica was eager to become a volunteer in the community-based program to have fun and give time to youth who desire it all. Allie's mother was eager to get Allie into the program in order to boost her confidence and expose her to an extra cheerleader on her side. Erica and Allie see each other often and come up with creative ways to spend their time together. They have even visited the local science museum. Allie matched in the community-based program, and as the program continues to check in, it seems their trust and joy only only continue to thrive. They are thrilled about this match and are excited to see them grow!

Grace and Hope

Grace and Hope were matched at Margaret Leary Elementary for the 2021-2022 school year and are continuing through the new school year. They have formed a true bond and friendship. Hope is now in the first grade and Grace is going into her senior year. Grace's commitment, reliability, and dedication to Hope has helped Hope with her schooling and Hope enjoys having someone extra to talk to. Hope is a fun, loving, and helpful girl who enjoys playing outside, coloring, and making bracelets with her Big, Grace. They spend time working together on homework, playing with games, puzzles, and painting their nails. Their relationship is sure to last a lifetime.

Hanna and Megan

Hanna and Megan have formed a true big sister-little sister relationship. Hanna is a sixth grader at Kennedy Elementary and Megan is a student at Montana Tech. Each week is spent helping Hanna with her homework if needed. When they are finished, they play in the gym or go outside. They both enjoy spending time together. Megan's dedication, reliability, and commitment to her Little has shown what a wonderful and inspiring person she is and a true friend to Hanna.

BBBS Vision

"For all youth to reach their full potential."

Be the Change 406 Coalition

Mission Statement:

"The mission of BTC 406 is to increase healthy opportunities and decrease substance misuse among youth through collaboration, education, and advocacy."

The intent of Be the Change is to create a climate where substance misuse among youth is not the norm or expectations of peers, parents, or other adults. Some of the projects of Be the Change included sending youth to CADCA in Washington DC, collaborating with the Dillon YMCA to create drug-free and family-friendly activities, and to perform prevention outreach.

While attending CADCA, a Be the Change 406 Coalition member learned about a project utilizing videos to engage local youth as a continuum in celebrating Red Ribbon Week. The goal of the Red-Carpet Youth Video Project was to promote positive, healthy messages to the entire community through the eyes of the local youth. In 2020, all 6th-12th grade students throughout Beaverhead County were invited to form 2-5 person teams and create a one-minute video based on the Red Ribbon Week theme, "Be Happy. Be Brave. Be Drug Free." A panel of judges selected the winners which were announced during the culminating event held during National Prevention Week in May 2021. All youth participants were asked to attend the formal Red-Carpet Event Award Ceremony, walk the red carpet, and to be honored at the local Big Sky Cinema. Attendees along with their families and friends had the opportunity to view the submitted youth videos on the big screen! Prizes included a $500 first place middle school team prize and a $1,000 first place high school team prize.

In its second year, Be the Change 406 Coalition is excited for the upcoming event as they have increased the number of participants! Once again, all 6th-12th grade students throughout Beaverhead County have been invited to form 2-5 person teams and create a one-minute video based on the 2021 Red Ribbon Week theme, "Drug Free Looks Like Me."

Because of the great success of the inaugural event, the local theatre manager's enthusiasm for this project has not waned as he is still excited for the opportunity to host the Red Carpet Ceremony once again. In addition, he offered his support this year by coming to the middle school and speaking to the 7th graders about their projects. He shared his expertise on filmmaking with the youth and discussed the financial impact the video industry can have on a small community, and the importance of video in creating positive change through activism.

Dillon 7th grade teachers have engaged and encouraged all their students to join teams and participate in this year's event. Unique to this year, a local news reporter offered to recruit volunteers to work as "paparazzi" with flashing cameras to replicate the Oscars. This added a new dimension to the "walking the red carpet" experience for the kids, their friends, and family. The youth anti-drug winning videos will be shown for the remainder of the year as previews before regular featured movies at the Big Sky Cinema. The Red Carpet event will be held at the Big Sky Cinema, the only cinema in Beaverhead County, in May 2022 during the National Drug and Alcohol Prevention Week celebration.

Butte Cares

Mission Statement:

"To build upon the compassion, generosity, and goodwill of the citizens of Butte-Silver Bow in order to provide resources to improve the safety and health of the entire community through education, treatment, and prevention of harmful behaviors."

Coalition Building

With OD2A funding, Butte Cares has strengthened efforts in increasing community participation and awareness in drug reduction, prevention, coalition building throughout the Southwest Montana region, increasing youth participation in coalitions, and bringing prevention efforts into schools.

Butte Cares has been increasing and supporting the coalition work in nine other counties. In one of those counties, they have been able to start a youth DUI Task Force and have meetings to address MIP's. The youth drive the work while guided by the prevention specialist.

Regionally, Butte Cares has radio ads to inform the public on who they are and talk about their coalition work. They have gotten several inquires due to people hearing the ads on the radio. They also had a citizen drop in to ask how he and others could get involved.

Another success was being able to show appreciation to the families and partners of Butte Cares. An award was given out to a person who had a long standing involvement. T-shirts were also given out to be worn at events, which people commented have brought professionalism to the event.

Walking the Red Carpet

The OD2A grant funded a "Red Carpet Video" prevention themed contest in Anaconda Deer Lodge County. The contest was open to participation of high school students. They were asked to create short videos which were focused on drug and alcohol prevention messaging. Through working with a community partner in the high school, The Film Club, the contest attracted the participation of thirteen youth who created four video entries in the contest. As the contest progressed, other community partners became involved. Two service clubs in Anaconda donated money for cash prizes. A local businessman donated the use of his theatre for the Red Carpet event. This was the culmination of the contest, including an Oscars-style awards ceremony. A panel of judges that were assembled from the community reviewed the entries and ranked them.

The Red Carpet award ceremony was combined with a prevention appreciation dinner to which all partners in prevention were invited. Both the awards ceremony and the dinner were well attended. The feedback from the community was incredible. The recognition for the students who were promoting prevention was highly caluable. Much interest was expressed in holding the contest and the event annually. Following the event, a video was played before the feature presentation at the movie theatre for over a month. This way, prevention messaging and information about the involvement of local youth was disseminated to large groups of people in the community for an extended time.

"Our vision is a community where parents and adults thrive and where youth can learn and grown in a safe, healthy, and drug-free environment."

MSU Extension: Powder River County

The marketing campaign through MSU Extension-Powder River County provided opioid use prevention education, treatment information, and mental health resources. Ad space was purchased in the weekly newspaper where the information could be accessible to Powder River County's approximately 2,000 residents.

Success #1

Weekly opioid resources and education was published. Billy Stuver, editor, published the 8.5x11 Wellness Weekly advertisement that is distributed to 867 print and 150 online subscribers. Over forty area resources to opioid treatment and substance use disorder prevention are listed. Stuver said, "I heard from one person this year who used the numbers on Wellness Weekly to find a provider, and another reader who liked the quotes. One nice thing about the paper is folks will often have it sitting around in the house for quite a while after it has been initially read, so the printed page tends to garner interest further down the line from when it's initially printed."

Success #2

Deterra bags and opioid misuse prevention and treatment resources are available and on display outside the local MSU Extension office. An MSU Extension website also lists treatment options and prevention resources. 704 views have been received on the website since it was created in 2020. "I love the positive messages the Wellness Weekly provides each week," said Dori Phillips-School Counselor and Youth Issues member. A Wellness Weekly poster is hung at several prominent locations around the school for youth and families and published each week on social media.

Our Place: Good Samaritan Ministries

Mission Statement:

"We believe that when treated with kindness, dignity, and respect, people are more able to create a drug free, violence free environment for themselves and their families."

Since receiving the OD2A mini-grant, Our Place has been able to purchase items such as a smart board, laptop, and curriculum. This allowed for better facilitation of groups at Our Place. By using the smart board, facilitators are able to put the workbook content up on the screen. This helped to start conversations and group discussions.

Our Place ran internal groups on Tuesdays to include an art group and recovery and wellness-based group on Thursday mornings. They also had outside providers from the community come in and run groups on communication skills and addiction. As Our Place is a drop-in center, they see a variety of different faces, but have several regulars that attend groups weekly. They did a four-week course on change in thought patterns, emotions, and actions through several different workbook activities. Six clients graduated from this course by participating in all groups. They also did a six-week course on the dimensions of wellness and had four graduates of that course for full participation. All clients that graduated a course were given a certificate. Clients can give this certificate to their probation officer to show that they are participating in recovery groups.

Client Successes

Our Place had one client who was homeless and had been visiting the drop in center frequently with her boyfriend. While previously the client would keep to herself and would not open up to staff, she slowly began to participate in the groups, coming to help set up in the mornings, and started coming to the staff for peer support. After starting the art group, she flourished, and began to come in early to help set up and participate. "The changes I have seen in her are remarkable," said one staff member.

Another success was with one client that the staff worked with daily. This person had been coming to Our Place for several months and at first, was reluctant to participate in groups, kept to himself, and said, "I did not have much hope in things changing in my life." Over time, the staff built a strong relationship and trust with him. The staff said, "He has not only joined groups, but is very active in participating and often shares his own story to try and help his peers." Recently, this client renewed his ID's, gotten odd jobs, received a business license, and worked diligently on his contractor's license to get back on his feet.

Another great success involved a young man who was living on the street for several years and struggled with various addictions. Over the last few months, he slowly began going to groups. At first, he only attended the morning engagement groups, "just feeling things out." As time progressed, he started attending some of the other groups and began to trust the staff and would open up during one-on-one peer support time. It clicked one day during engagement with the staff that he could no longer live on the street. Staff helped him apply for MERA, food stamps, and other services. Shortly after, the young man found a job and acquired housing. He recently was promoted at his work.

These stories showcase the amazing progress and resiliency that is shown by the clients at Our Place. Their recovery groups and services have such a positive impact on the lives of the people they serve.

Ravalli County: Opioid Misuse Prevention

The Ravalli County Public Health Department (RCPHD) created prevention strategies to reduce the risk of harm for opioid use, misuse, and abuse. The strategies to accomplish this were community education, dissemination of resources available for opioid misuse and abuse all while reducing stigma and correcting public misinformation. Ravalli County participated in two separate community events. The Jean Matthews, Tuesdays at Twelve summer concert series was chosen to set up the RCPHD opioid education and safe storage awareness booth. The event takes place on the Ravalli County Museum lawn. The Tuesdays at Twelve summer event was created by one of Ravalli County's public health nurses, Jean Matthews in 1990. Matthews passed away in 2015, but the concert series continues as her legacy, therefore, the perfect venue to reach out to the community. The opioid education booth was set up with three different sized lock boxes. There was the safe locking system for pill bottles, a medium size combination lock box, and a large box with a lock and key. The goal was to engage residents in a conversation about the difference between use and misuse of prescription medication. The health department wanted to better understand what information or misinformation might be widely perceived by our community. Most notably was the common practice of sharing prescription medication among friends and family. Whether it was giving someone the rest of an old prescription or sharing a dose of prescribed medication with a family member or friend, this seemed to be an acceptable practice. Most residents were quite surprised at the information presented on use and misuse. Fortunately, the local county sheriff participated at one of the events to answer residents' questions and engage in conversations with the community about the importance of safe storage.

In total, between availability of the lock boxes in the health department's office and the two events, 182 safe storage boxes were provided to community residents. Informational pamphlets with useful tips on how to talk to teens, safe storage at home and facts about prescription opioids were disseminated. The RCPHD Facebook page was cited a number of times by residents stopping by the office to learn more about the "Safe Storage" program.

Missoula Perinatal Substance Use Network

PSU Network Values:

"The Perinatal Substance Use Network recognizes that all families have unique needs and values, and that our community is stronger if there are a variety of support options available. Families should be respected and allowed to exercise their agency as much as possible in the treatment and services they receive."

The goal of the Perinatal Substance Use Network is to increase the number of families impacted by substance use to stay safely together while in the perinatal period. The program team conducted interviews and surveys to gain a better understanding of the barriers of vulnerable populations in order to identify opportunities for future work. During the interview process, there were different uses of language related to substance use disorder that kept reoccurring. SAMSHA has recommended what best-practice language to use in order to reduce stigma. However, PSU realized that many people who use more traditional language were families with lived experience. This conflict between best practice and honoring lived experience is common in collaborative work, and PSU wanted to handle it thoughtfully. They worked with a consultant and trainer to survey group members about their language use, and facilitate a discussion about language use within the PSU Network. Through the discussion, they came to an understanding that the same words have different connotations to different people. Group members agreed that facilitators would use best practice language, but came away knowing that different perspectives would be honored as as long as conversations were in line with group values of empowering families and destigmatizing substance use disorders. This conversation set a good foundation for collaborative work.

Group members brain stormed possible project ideas. They spent time at the final meeting discussing each idea, and vetting it with a list of criteria. Group members got excited, discussed what they wanted to spend their time on, what was most needed, and what was backed by research. "It was amazing to watch," PSU staff said. Members with lived experience were actively advocating for projects, and championed one of the projects that was eventually chosen." Ambitious projects were able to be chosen because key group members were invested in making them happen. The project ideas were high quality because of the caliber of group members, and the process everyone had gone through to learn about the issue together. It was incredibly rewarding to see all of the foundational work of interviewing, team building, and learning turn into an empowering decision-making process.

Region III Mental Health Center

The When the Game Slows Down project focuses on building awareness and education within the student athlete population and their parents/guardians on the dangers and addiction potential of opioid-based pain medications.

Substance Abuse Connect Executive Director, Kristin Lundgren, had the opportunity to share the work of SAC with the state Substance Use Disorder Taskforce quarterly meeting. In the presentation, Ms. Lundgren highlighted "Taking Care of Business" and the engagement it was driving with the business community and coalition outreach.

When the Game Slows Down

Success #1

The "When the Game Slows Down" project has expanded into new communities and has been a powerful tool to create interest and partnership for prevention. In Musselshell County, the partnership has been featured in new and engaging ways including display banners on site, packets included with community give away materials, and with every athlete with their sport duffle bag. The expansion in Musselshell County has proven to be an effective way to engage a new cohort of athletes that often aren't targeted or reached due to the proximity to the larger community of Billings. This program demonstrated a common thread between Billings, where most travel for medical treatment, and the importance of local buy in and influence.

Taking Care of Business

Success #1

There are four other counties that are engaging in this project and will be distributing the county specific materials. These counties include, Fergus, Sweet Grass, Big Horn, with the possibility of also including Carbon and Stillwater counties. Through the presentation, multiple other Montana-based substance use and mental health coalitions requested additional information and copies of the materials to use within their communities. There is excitement around the prospect of the project reaching more businesses across the state to facilitate policy changes and support for employees.

Success #2

The outreach to the business community in Yellowstone County was tremendous. Local business owners were interested in learning more and in helping to expand the program. There were natural limitations in regards to small businesses. This made for the need to put information and resources in a structure that required minimal overhead and implementation time.

Through the first year of the project, Taking Care of Business is looking to outreach and work closer with businesses to further develop and refine new materials. Their hope is to transition this over to them so they will continue to organically incubate and promote within social and business spheres.

South-Central Montana Regional Mental Health Center: Mental Health First Aid and PAX Tools to Prevent Substance Abuse

The MHC prevention specialists of south-central Montana provided PAX tools training to parents and adults who work with youth. PAX tools were also implemented in elementary schools. In addition, the prevention specialists and trained community partners provided Mental Health First Aid training to community members in Carbon County. Community members who completed the training included, school personnel, law enforcement, faith-based organizations, hospital and nursing home staff, and families. There was excellent participation from a variety of sectors in the communities of south-central Montana. People who enrolled in Youth Mental Health First Aid included, elected officials, first responders, college students, retired folks, faith-based community members, medical staff, people with lived experience, and many more. Following one of the classes, a person who completed the course called the instructor and said that they had used the tools learned in Mental Health First Aid at their place of work.