SAMHSA recently announced several grant funding opportunities for Fiscal Year 2005. Selected announcements include the following:

Mental Health Transformation State Incentive Grants (Application due date: June 1, 2005)-6 to 13 cooperative agreement grant awards, for $1.5 million to $3 million per year for up to 5 years, to provide support for infrastructure and service delivery improvement activities to help build a solid foundation for delivering and sustaining mental health and related services. These grants will support new and expanded planning and development to promote transformation to systems explicitly designed to foster recovery and meet the multiple needs of consumers. (SM-05-009, $18.8 million)

Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program (Application due date: May 17, 2005)-up to 24 cooperative agreement grant awards, for up to $1 million in years 1 and 6, $1.5 million in years 2 and 5, and $2 million in years 3 and 4, for the Child Mental Health Initiative to build effective systems of care for children with serious emotional disturbances and their families. (SM-05-010, $24 million)

Targeted Capacity Expansion Grants To Meet the Mental Health Services Needs of Older Adults (Application due date: May 5, 2005)—11 grant awards, from $375,000 to $400,000 per year for up to 3 years, to help provide direct services and to build the necessary infrastructure to support expanded services for meeting the diverse mental health needs of older persons who are at risk for or are experiencing mental health problems. (SM-05-012, $4.4 million)

Targeted Capacity Expansion Grants for Jail Diversion (Application due date: May 24, 2005)-6 grant awards, for $400,000 per year for up to 3 years, for jail

diversion programs to divert individuals with mental illness away from the criminal justice system and into community-based, integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment and appropriate support services. (SM-05-011, $2.4 million)

Mental Health Services for Adolescents at Risk of Suicide (Application due date: June 1, 2005)—8 cooperative agreement grant awards, for $250,000 per year for up to 2 years, to evaluate voluntary school-based programs that focus on the identification and referral of high school youth who are at risk for suicide or suicide attempts. (SM-05-019, $1.8 million)

State-Sponsored Youth Suicide Prevention (Application due date: June 1, 2005)-up to 14 cooperative agreement grant awards, for up to $400,000 per year for up to 3 years, to build on the foundation of prior suicide prevention efforts and support states and tribes in developing and implementing youth prevention and early intervention strategies, as authorized under the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act. (SM-05-014, $5.5 million)

Campus Suicide Prevention (Application due date: June 1, 2005)— 20 grant awards, for up to $75,000 per year for up to 3 years, with an equivalent match from the applicant's organization, to support institutions of higher education to enhance services for students with mental and behavioral health problems, as authorized under the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act. (SM-05-015, $1.5 million)

Suicide Prevention Resource Center (Application due date: June 1, 2005)— 1 cooperative agreement grant award, for $2.6 million per year for up to 5 years, to create and operate a national suicide prevention resource center that will assist states, territories, tribes, and communities

in their efforts to plan for the development,

implementation, and evaluation of suicide prevention programs, as authorized under the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act. (SM-05-017, $2.6 million)

National Child Traumatic
Stress Initiative

Community Treatment and Services Centers (Application due date: May 17, 2005)-19 grant awards, for $400,000 per year for up to 4 years, for community treatment and services centers under the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative to improve treatment and services for children and adolescents who have experienced traumatic events. (SM-05-006, $7.6 million)

Treatment and Service Adaptation Centers (Application due date: May 6, 2005) 8 grant awards, for $600,000 per year for up to 4 years, to improve treatment for all children and adolescents who have experienced traumatic events by providing national expertise and serving as the lead organizations for identifying and adapting effective treatment and services for specific types of trauma. (SM-05-005, $4.8 million)

For the most up-to-date listings, and for information regarding applications, visit www. grants.gov or www.samhsa.gov/grants. ▸

Drug Free Communities Support Program Grants (Application due date: May 31, 2005)—20 grant awards (approximately) to new programs and 19 competing renewal Mentoring Program awards. Award amounts will be up to $75,000 per year for up to 2 years. Grants will be administered by SAMHSA from money provided by the Office of National Drug Control Policy under the Drug Free Communities Support Program. (SP-05-003, $2.9 million). ‣

IN BRIEF...

Recruiting, Training, and
Using Volunteers

This 56-page handbook-Successful Strategies for Recruiting, Training, and Utilizing Volunteers: A Guide for Faith- and Community-Based Service Providers--offers help for organizations seeking to make the most of the skills of their volunteers and expand their services to the community. The handbook focuses on prevention, treatment, and recovery services for substance abuse and mental illness; however, the principles described apply to any field and may help organizations understand how to start and manage a successful volunteer program. Chapters describe specific steps to take in carrying out an effective volunteer program: planning, recruiting, training, managing, and evaluating. Volunteer profiles throughout the handbook showcase the talent, passion, and commitment of volunteers and illustrate the diversity of volunteer positions. Appendices include sample forms and worksheets, a glossary, and print and Web-based resources. NCADI No. BKD519.

Screening Substance Abuse Clients for HIV/AIDS

Because substance abuse is associated with the risk of HIV infection, screening for HIV/AIDS is recommended for clients receiving substance abuse treatment. This pocket tool for substance abuse treatment providers HIV/AIDS: Is Your Adult Client at Risk? contains questions that may help identify what (if any) types of risky behavior a client may be engaging in as well as specific talking points to engage clients in a discussion about how to change or avoid such behaviors. NCADI No. MS965.

Post-9/11 Disaster Relief Grant Program

A Report on the Post-September 11 State Disaster Relief Grant Program of SAMHSA'S Center for Substance Abuse Treatment focuses on the program activities undertaken by the nine states-Connecticut, District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia-that received SAMHSA disaster relief following the September 11, 2001, attacks. The 32-page report details cross-cutting themes for states that received the grants and provides an overview of the contributions of Single State Authorities for Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services with respect to disaster planning, training, and providing substance abuse treatment services. State-specific observations from participating states also are included. NCADI No. BKD516.

In Recovery?

Know Your Rights

For general guidance on the legal rights of individuals with alcohol or drug problems, Are You in Recovery? Know Your Rights informs people in recovery of their rights, including Federal laws that protect them from discrimination in employment and job training, housing, Government services and programs, health care, and education. This 15-page brochure lets readers know what they can do to prevent or remedy violations to their

rights and overcome barriers due to current or past drug- or alcohol-related problems. NCADI No. PHD1091. D

These publications are available from SAMHSA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information. Call 1 (800) 729-6686 or 1 (800) 487-4889 TDD (for the hearing impaired), or visit www.samhsa.gov.▸

SAMHSA to expand this innovative program to 7 more states in Fiscal Year 2006, for a total of 22 participating states. States will have the flexibility to focus their efforts on the areas of greatest need.

The budget request also includes $31 million for the Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral, and Treatment Program, which allows states to expand the continuum of care to include services for non-dependent drug users. In Fiscal Year 2006, SAMHSA plans to fund an additional two states, for a total of nine states receiving funding.

Substance Abuse:

Substance Abuse Block Grant

Programs of Regional and

National Significance:

Treatment

Prevention

Subtotal, Substance Abuse

Mental Health:

Mental Health Block Grant

PATH Homeless Formula Grant

Programs of Regional and

National Significance

Promoting Effective Prevention. The President's budget request underscores the need to build capacity for comprehensive, evidence-based substance abuse prevention programs. Of the $184 million allocated for substance abuse prevention, $93 million is earmarked for SAMHSA's Strategic Prevention Framework. SAMHSA awarded its first Strategic Prevention Framework grants in 2004 to 21 states and territories.

Substance Abuse Block Grant.

The President's budget includes $1.8 billion for the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant-the same level as Fiscal Year 2005. The Block Grant provides funding to more than 10,500 communitybased organizations and is the cornerstone of states' substance abuse financing.

Mental Health

The budget includes $837 million for mental health services, a decrease of $64 million from Fiscal Year 2005. However, transforming the Nation's mental health system remains one of SAMHSA's highest priorities as recommended by the President's Commission on Mental Health. Funding also is provided to sustain discretionary grant activities.

Transforming the Mental Health System. The Fiscal Year 2006 budget proposes $26 million for State Incentive Grants for Transformation, an increase of $6 million over 2005. These grants encourage states to develop comprehensive state mental health plans to reduce system fragmentation and, ultimately, improve quality of mental health care for people with mental illness. SAMHSA will award eight State Incentive Grants for Transformation in Fiscal Year 2005, as well as three new grants in 2006.

New grantees will undertake planning and coordination activities in tandem with a diverse array of agencies such as criminal justice, housing, child welfare, labor, and education. In the second year

The President's request also proposes to maintain the same level of funding for the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant-the only Federal program that provides funds to every state to deliver mental health services and improve the public mental health system. The Block Grant also gives states the flexibility to transform the system of care for people with mental illness on a statewide basis.

Other Mental Health Programs. The budget maintains funding for community-based systems of care for children and youth, services for people who are homeless, and protection and advocacy programs. It provides $67 million for youth violence prevention, $30 million for the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative, and more than $16 million for suicide prevention.

The President's budget also calls for more than $5 million in new funding for the SAMHSA HIV/AIDS Minority Mental Health Services Program, which will enable SAMHSA to award 11 new grants in Fiscal Year 2006. It also provides resources to increase access to mental health services

to some of the Nation's most vulnerable citizens, including people with co-occurring mental and substance abuse disorders, older Americans, and traumatized children. Data Strategy Vision. As a part of its data strategy, SAMHSA, in collaboration with states and other grantees, has agreed to implement the National Outcome Measures (NOMS) to standardize the measures monitoring, assessing, and evaluating all SAMHSA programs. SAMHSA will initiate a new program, the State Outcomes Measurement and Management System, in Fiscal Year 2005 to support information technology upgrades, training, and analysis required for collection and use of the NOMS. Reporting of NOMS by all states will be phased in over 3 years.

Gathering information on a common and focused set of national outcomes will help SAMHSA, states, and local communities collect relevant data that are useful to assess program performance and identify any specific populations that need special assistance. Over time, use of the standardized outcome measures will help track progress toward state-established targets and will provide for continuous program improvement at Federal and state levels.

For more information, visit the SAMHSA Web site at www.samhsa.gov/budget/ budget.html. In addition, a "Budget in Brief" is available at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Web site at www.hhs.gov.

Online Links to Budget Information

SAMHSA'S Web site offers downloads of the Fiscal Year 2006 Budget in both PDF and MS Word formats at www. samhsa.gov/Budget/index.aspx.

SAMHSA's

Since 1972, the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) has monitored trends in drug-related emergency room visits and drug-related deaths. Now SAMHSA's national surveillance system has had an extreme makeover. "Basically, only DAWN's name has remained the same," said Judy K. Ball, Ph.D., M.P.A., DAWN Team Leader in SAMHSA's Office of Applied Studies.

To reflect the dramatic changes over the last three decades in both the Nation's demographics and its health care system, DAWN recently underwent a multi-year process of evaluation and redesign. The result is a system that's more useful than ever before to the Federal agencies, state and local governments, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and others that rely on these data.

Redesigning DAWN

Initially a project of the Drug Enforcement Administration, DAWN became SAMHSA's responsibility in the early 1980s. For a long time, DAWN didn't change much. But by the mid-1990s, the Agency took a close look at whether DAWN was still reflecting the Nation's substance abuse issues accurately.

"The health care system had changed a lot, and so had our country's population," explained Dr. Ball, noting that Americans were continuing to migrate south and west. "It was clear we needed to take a look at DAWN and see how it could be improved to reflect those and other changes."

To find out, SAMHSA convened a panel of experts in 1997 to consider the question. DAWN was worth continuing, the panel

concluded, but needed major changes to stay relevant. A 2-year assessment of every aspect of DAWN followed. Based on the resulting

recommendations, a totally new protocol was introduced in January 2003.

The new DAWN differs from the old network in three major ways.

First, there's a new sample of hospitals that better reflects the Nation's changing demographics and health care system. Because it would be too expensive to collect data from every emergency room across the country, since the mid-1980s DAWN has relied on a scientific sample of emergency rooms across the Nation and in selected metropolitan areas.

The new sample better reflects the Nation's shifts in population. It includes cities such as Houston, for example, one of the Nation's largest. And the sample now covers the entire United States (previously, Alaska and Hawaii were excluded). Because DAWN doesn't use a sample for medical examiners and coroners, it is now expanding its recruitment efforts to cover the entire area where there are hospital samples. In addition, DAWN is adding medical examiners and coroners for a number of states.

Second, the new DAWN defines eligible cases more broadly than the old DAWN, which collected data about substance abuse

cases only, and defined substance abuse in narrow terms. In other words, the only cases that counted were ones in which medical charts documented that patients had used drugs because of dependence, a suicide attempt, or the desire to achieve a "high." That also meant that DAWN was missing a lot of cases that should have been included. "That kind of specificity about why a patient used a drug is something that's often missing from medical charts," explained Dr. Ball. "Why the patient took the drug may not be clinically relevant. Also, in some states, insurers can deny payment for emergency department visits associated with substance abuse. That is a real disincentive for writing it down."

Casting its net more broadly, DAWN now collects data about all kinds of drug-related emergency department visits, whether they're due to illegal drugs, prescription or over-thecounter medications, dietary supplements, or non-pharmaceutical inhalants.

And third, DAWN now uses a new "casefinding" technique. DAWN "reporters"-the people who collect the data-used to rely on shortcuts to find the eligible cases. To avoid having to review every patient's chart, they would check logs or use billing codes to find cases likely to be related to drug abuse. SAMHSA's evaluation revealed that such shortcuts missed a substantial number of cases. Now DAWN reporters review the charts of every single patient who is treated in the emergency room.

"Drug-related cases in emergency departments are not terribly frequent relative