Frequently Asked Questions

Technical Assistance Seminars 1, 2, & 3

Updated and Posted May 16, 2005  

 General Questions

 

1.  Question: Where do I find my jurisdictional data?

 

Answer:  Data is available to Health Officers and Treatment Coordinators via the ADAA web site. Log in, then select jurisdictions, and then select the region you are located in. You will only be allowed access to your jurisdiction’s data.  

 

2.  Question:  What is the procedure to follow if a local agency or program won’t cooperate with the survey?

 

Answer:  Contact the ADAA for further technical assistance based on the State law mandating the development of a County plan, which includes a survey of all funding resources.

 

3.  Question:  How is the local survey going to be used? 

 

Answer:  It should be used first as a basis for a planning process for the local jurisdiction. In the long run, it will create a basis for reasonable resource requests. 

 

4.  Question:  What will we do to validate its accuracy? 

 

Answer:  There will be some checks and balances by comparing the published State and local budgets. Ideally, we will move towards construction of a thematic budget. 

 

5.  Question:  Will we do any sampling or auditing to determine accuracy? 

 

Answer:  We probably will have to do that at some point. We can potentially use this data to show that level funding really means a decrease in services, and results in falling behind. 

 

6.  Question: Will there be a matrix prepared for the local jurisdictions that matches the categories presented in the first TA session? 

 

Answer:  Yes, a sample matrix for local jurisdictions to use was piloted with Queen Anne’s County and presented in the second Technical Assistance Seminar(s). It is available on the web under local council as an excel template. 

 

7.  Question: Is the format presented required to be used by all the jurisdictions statewide? My jurisdiction already developed a matrix with some different categories included. Can we just use what we have? 

 

Answer:  Your local council may have a need for more information other than the basic eight cells requested by ADAA. Feel free to collect more and keep separately for your own purposes. in your local council can keep the information already obtained for your jurisdictions use, however, for the sake of uniformity throughout the state, we would like the information transferred into the format that the ADAA has provided. This will likely only require the addition of a few cells, and can be easily cut and pasted from your existing document. 

 

 

Local Survey Questions

 

            Direct versus Indirect Activities

 

 8.  Question:  Would an information and referral service be considered a direct activity if some calls request information about substance abuse? 

 

Answer:  No, it would not count as a direct activity as the focus or mission of the program is to provide information and referral, which by itself, would not serve to “identify and move an individual into care”. The service would occur regardless of type of information requested; therefore, it would be an indirect activity.

 

9.  Question: Do we include dollars spent for foster care for children of addicted mothers? 

 

Answer:  No, that would be an indirect cost of substance abuse. Please refer to the document posted on the web under the Local Councils which provides definitions for prevention, intervention, and treatment, as well as Direct versus Indirect activities. 

 

Questions on What to Include

 

10.  Question:  Would you include state agencies that have local programs in the local jurisdiction survey? For example, would parole and probation activities that occur in Baltimore be included in the Baltimore plan?

 

Answer:  Yes, the local jurisdiction plan needs to include a survey of federal, state, local, and private foundation funds used for prevention, intervention, and treatment in that locality.

 

 

  

11.  Question:  What if there is a treatment facility in the County that also treats people from other jurisdictions? 

 

Answer:  What is included in the survey is the amount of funding that goes into the facility by the jurisdiction writing the plan, as well as other funding going in to the facility that is accessible to citizens of the jurisdiction writing the plan. In addition, if the funding going to the jurisdiction includes funding for other jurisdictions as part of a “regional plan”, the jurisdiction receiving the funding should record the total amount with a footnote indicating the funding is for multiple jurisdictions. Those jurisdictions should not also record the funding so as to avoid duplications.

 

12.  Question:  What if any in kind services would we include? 

 

Answer:  Include in-kind services that can be quantified as part of a matching grant, but only if those dollars are not counted elsewhere. Do not include in-kind services such as donated space in a County building, or resources such as maintenance staff that serve all county facilities, etc.

 

13.  Question:  Are we expected to include all non-profits regardless of size?

 

Answer:  Only include funding that is connected in some way to the public system, or is within the scope or control of the agencies participating in the local council.      

 

14.  Question:  What about a local foundation in my jurisdiction like United Way? 

 

Answer:  Approach the survey from the public side. Look at programs that are under your control that may be funded by a foundation as a revenue source, but you don’t need to survey all of the private or not for profit agencies in your jurisdiction to see what they are doing in these areas. 

 

15.  Question: What about for-profit organizations?

 

Answer:  The survey is not meant to capture all private funds that are related to substance abuse. Medicaid or MCO dollars will be captured at the state level. Don’t try to go to each private provider who may bill MCO’s. It is most important to account for all public funds, then any significant private foundations or organizations providing public services under an endowment, or contributing to the funding of a public service. However, in terms of overall strategic planning, you might want to consider other resources in the community in terms of the estimate of need. You have the data available from ADAA to tell you if individuals from your jurisdiction are receiving services that are provided in the private sector.

 

  

            Level of specificity

 

16.  Question:  Do we need to designate all of the sub-vendors that are recipients of grants funds such as Cigarette Restitution Funds? 

 

Answer:  We are not looking for that level of detail in the matrix for our purposes; however, the local council may want to know that information internally. Use your discretion as to how specific you need to be for your jurisdiction regarding recipients of grant dollars like CRF. 

 

17.  Question:  Do you separate out dollars for prevention and treatment if the program provides both? 

 

Answer:  No, that is not necessary as many programs provide a combination of prevention, intervention, or treatment services.

 

18.  Question:  Do we need to differentiate services by level of treatment? 

Answer:   Not for our purposes, however, feel free to get more specific if it is helpful to the planning process in your jurisdiction.

 

            Prevention Questions

 

19.  Question:  Prevention grants come from many funding sources, how do you count them?

 

Answer:  Start with the program and its mission and then determine if it is a direct activity, don’t determine if the activity is direct or indirect based on the funding source.

 

20.  Question:  If you have a “model” program that is provided through an agency with a secondary focus, would it still count as a direct (prevention) activity?

 

Answer: Yes, many entities with a secondary focus may have programs that would be considered as direct activities.

 

21.  Question:  Does a prevention program have to be a CSAP model program or one that is listed on the national registry in order to be included? For example, what about DARE, or one time prevention programs like “prom Promise”?

 

Answer:  We would expect that most of the prevention programs funded will be either a model program or on the registry, however, there may be a program privately funded within a jurisdiction providing public services or administered by a public agency that is considered and valued by that jurisdiction as an effective prevention program, and therefore, included on their list. Ultimately, you will want to have the discussion about the policy of the jurisdiction regarding how to spend money for prevention, intervention, or treatment. In the meanwhile, allow council participants to present their perspective on whether their programs fit the definitions as presented by the state, and include what makes sense within that context. 

 

22.  Question:  Do we include all the generic prevention programs like programs for juvenile delinquency, or other general risk and protective factors type programs? 

 

Answer: No, only include programs specific to alcohol and drug abuse prevention intervention or treatment. 

 

            Treatment Questions

 

23.  Question:  There is a private facility in my jurisdiction providing services for children referred through the Department of Juvenile Services that is not certified or licensed as an addiction treatment facility, should it be counted as treatment?

 

Answer:  No, do not count any program as a direct treatment activity unless it is certified by ADAA.

 

23.  Question:  What about faith based programs that are not certified? 

 

Answer:  Only include programs under the scope or control of the agencies participating in the local council, and only include as treatment if the program is certified. 

 

            Law enforcement/Criminal Justice Services Questions

 

 24.  Question:  My jurisdiction has a teen court for youthful offenders. Since one of the sentencing options is a referral to the local health department, can or should we count a portion of the funding for the court services as prevention, intervention, or treatment?

 

Answer:  If the service provided is simply information and a referral to the local health department, then, just as in the example of information and referral hotline in question 8, the activity would not be counted. The resource to be included in the matrix would be the funding allocated where the individual receives a professional assessment and potential referral for alcohol and drug abuse.  

 

25.  Question:  Should we be including law enforcement activities related to sale of alcohol or tobacco to minors as decreasing the illegal sales will impact on rates of initiation and use?

 

Answer:  Not as part of this effort. The local survey of resources is specifically aimed at prevention, intervention, and treatment resources in the local jurisdiction. There are criminal justice or law enforcement activities that could potentially impact on rates of initiation or illegal use of drugs and alcohol. However, if the function or mission of those activities is based on enforcement of the laws related to use of alcohol or drugs, those resources may be tracked separately, as part of indirect costs that could impact the overall illegal use of tobacco, alcohol, or drugs.

 

26.  Question:  What part of drug court costs should be included, for example, grants for training to develop a drug courts, costs of probation agents or judges? 

 

Answer:  Only include costs of the program that are specific to the provision of prevention, intervention or treatment of substance abuse, such as salary for counselors, not costs related to the criminal prosecution, monitoring or administering the court. 

 

27.  Question:  Do we include funding for “hot spots” initiatives? 

Answer:  As in drug courts, only include funding for any part of the program that specifically pertains to prevention, intervention or treatment as previously defined.   

 

28.  Question: Does a DDMP count as prevention/intervention? 

 

Answer:  The DDMP function is primarily for law enforcement and would not be counted in this exercise. You may want to keep track of law enforcement activities such as these that may have an indirect impact on substance abuse for your own purposes.

 

Comprehensive Strategic Plan Questions

 

29.  Question:  Is there a form/template or a model for writing the comprehensive plan?

 

Answer:  There is not one specific form to use, or template; however, there is a detailed presentation available on the ADAA website on the development of a strategic plan by John Carnevale. Within this presentation, there is a full listing of the required elements of “The Comprehensive Plan” (slide 6) as well as a detailed description of the process in which to develop a plan (slides 7-33). Two model plans are shown on slide 36 of this presentation. To find the presentation, look on the left hand side under Publications, select Presentations, then select ADAA Management Conference power point presentations, and then select John Carnevale’s presentation on “Mapping the System”. In addition, a sample plan for “Bay County, Maryland” was developed and presented during the third series of Technical Assistance, April 18th and 25th, 2005 and is posted on the web site under Local Councils.

 

30.  Question:  Should we be concerned with setting target dates for each measure?

 

Answer:  Not at this point, the budget for the state will be developed this summer.  These are two year plans initially, but may be revised more frequently at the discretion of the jurisdiction.

 

31.  Question:  Does the state have an estimation of the number of children of substance abusers that may need to be targeted for prevention services in a local jurisdiction?

 

Answer:  That information is not available that specifically at this time.  An old estimate of the number of individuals affected by one person’s alcoholism was one to four.  However, that estimate does not indicate the number of children versus adults potentially affected. 

 

32.  Question:  Should goals and objectives listed in the plan be limited to those that are financially feasible? 

 

Answer:  Not necessarily, however, the strategic plan is not the designated mechanism for requesting additional funding from the state.

 

33. Question:  Do we need to know where the money would come from to develop the objectives?

 

Answer:  No

 

34. Question:  As we are just in the initial development stages for our local council, it is likely that there will be limited overall council participation in the initial strategic plan.  Will that be seen as a problem? 

 

Answer:  Strategic planning process will vary based on the stage of development of the council.  It is known that jurisdictions are in different stages in the local planning process.  As councils develop, there may be a need for updates or revisions to the initial plans.  It is expected that the planning process may grow and change in future years. 

 

35. Question:  The new MD adolescent survey will not be available until after the next two year plan is due.  Should we use existing old data which is available now?

 

Answer:  You can only use the best data available to you at the time you are preparing your plan.

 

36. Question:  The strategic plan for DC contains a lot of narrative, and specific system outcomes.  Is it expected for a jurisdiction to include long term outcomes? 

 

Answer:  Narrative is not necessary.  Long term outcomes are useful in strategic planning.    

 

37. Question:  Do we need to justify which goals/objectives are selected over others?  Or describe the process used to determine goals and objectives?

 

Answer:  No, the survey of local resources matrix should help to illustrate how decisions are being made currently.  In addition, budget narrative to ADAA already includes much of the justification for dollars requested from ADAA.  We would assume that the justification would be similar. 

 

38. Question:  Are there any restrictions or timeline after submitting the plan to ADAA before it can be released to the public?

 

Answer:  That would be a decision for the local jurisdiction.

.

39. Question:  How do you measure the number of addicted individuals in a population? 

 

Answer:  There are proxy measure that can be used such as a combination of DWI rates, drug related crimes, rates of HIV, etc.

 

40. Question:  Should we stick with things that can be measured in house?  Or can we use a measure that depends on other local data?

 

Answer:  Try to stay away from things that can’t be measured for right now.  It may be better to use proxy measures that are available now, such as HIV infection rate, DWI arrests, etc.

 

41. Question:  The Survey of Local Resources Matrix uses dollar figures from FY05, but the strategic plan is for the next two years?  How will these two mesh? 

 

Answer:  It is expected that there will be some changes in focus and allocations of resources based on future plans and expectations.

 

42. Question:  Who is accountable to ensure that the Local Survey of Resources Matrix gets filled out? 

 

Answer:  The Council chair would be responsible for ensuring that all of the legislated requirements are met. 

 

43. Question:  The local P&P, and DJS dollars will not show up in the matrix as those departments couldn’t provide specific information, is that ok? 

 

Answer:  Yes, that information will have to be obtained on the State level during meetings with DBM.

 

44. Question:  What is expected in the 6 month update? 

 

Answer:  Just an update of the strategic plan.  Ideally, we’d like to make them all available for everyone.

 

 

Useful notes:

 

• 4-6 goals are about the right number of goals.
• Don’t make your measurement too complicated.
• Use the Bay County sample as a first draft, not final product.
• You could put more precise numbers if you know them for particular objectives.
• Narrative is not needed.
• Survey should coordinate with and be attached to the plan.
• Don’t designate who is responsible for each objective.
• This is just the initial strategic plan, you probably won’t wait two years to update. 
• We will review plans with you as they come in.  This will help us to get an idea how much money may be needed from the state for future years.
• ADAA is recommending the structure and simplicity for the strategic plans, not the specific vision, mission, goals used in the sample.
• We are available to provide assistance to the local councils.