Measuring the success of substance use disorder education and prevention programs can be a challenging if there is not a strong framework by which to measure success. Many years ago, Surry County began the arduous process of collecting data from residents that has since guided the county’s policy regarding the disease and will provide the basis for measuring progress.
A meeting held Wednesday at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History brought together community stakeholders, county officials, representatives of Surry County Emergency Services and the Surry County Office of Substance Abuse Recovery to educate on Results-Based Accountability (RBA) practices which can help those seeking those answers to find common ground from which to determine success.
The session was led by Claire Mills, leader of the Results Based Accountability Initiative of the North Carolina Area Health Education Center, Kathy Dail with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health, and Madilynn Turner, community health improvement consultant with the Eastern Area Health Education Center.
Attendees were told to consider what the desired end goal is and work backward from there to identify things that can be done at the community level to make a difference.
Results-Based Accountability says that those setting goals must ensure they have identified a specific population group in a specific area with a targeted impact or outcome. Without establishing parameters for who the target audience is and a desired result, efforts to help may be scattershot.
Copies of texts from author Mark Friedman were distributed to attendees including ‘Trying Hard is Not Good Enough,’ a title that illustrates even those with the best intentions but working in an unfocused way to do good may actually do more harm.
“We all try hard but when we’re not working together, it’s almost useless. So, trying hard by itself is just not good enough,” Mills said. The ultimate measure of success is not the amount of time or effort put in by those running education and prevention programs, but by the impact those programs have.
That desired impact is the goal from which everything begins. Mills said, “You start with the end and work backwards; you’ve got to know where you’re going. We always say in the morning when you go out in the driveway and you’re going to work, you got to know that you’re going to work to know which way to turn out in her driveway... You got to have a North Star.”
She said it is human nature to want to dive into a problem headfirst. “When we hear about a problem, our inclination is to start fixing it. It’s great that we are all doers and helpers, but we’ve got to slow ourselves down just enough and use discipline.”
One of the prime examples of finding an end goal and working backward to find solutions that would impact the outcome came from the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) model. “I’m going to take you back to California in 1980, a group of mothers, each of whom lost a child from drunk driving, who got together and were totally appalled of the numbers of alcohol-related traffic fatalities.”
“They were even more concerned, horrified, with society saying, ‘Oh, that’s just what happens.’ Now, 40 years later, there are over 600 state organizations, chapters, and community action groups. Another thing we credit to MADD was in 1986: the designated driver. Now it’s a household name but it began with MADD and moved across the state, across the country, bringing it here to North Carolina.”
What started in California with a group of mothers who had a targeted goal for a target population then morphed and spread to other communities across the nation who then took the baton and created their own programs. Mills noted, “In high schools you have Operation Prom, Operation Graduation, where they actually signed a pledge that they would not use alcohol.”
“You say, ‘How did that get in rural eastern North Carolina?’ It was because there was a family, a mother who said they would start this. They said this is what’s going on, this is what’s happening in the country, and we will start this here — it was driven by that passion.”
“One of the things that we believe strongly is that if you have a story to tell to address one of these problems, such as substance use disorder. When you look at data and the story and slap some passion on to it, then you can start maybe moving the mountains to be able to get something done, and that is what MADD did,” Mills said.
There are numerous groups both in the public and private sector that are seeking to make an impact on the lives of Surry County residents who suffer from substance use disorder or whose families are impacted by the disease.
Without knowing what the destination is, measuring progress to the goal is fruitless. Surry County Office of Substance Abuse Recovery Director Jaime Edwards uses the metaphor that the county is paddling on the river and when sharing a common language and a common goal, everyone can ensure they are rowing in the same direction.
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