Implement an Evidence-Based Program

The Office of Substance Use and Mental Health encourages and supports community centered evidence-based prevention, with gold-standard prevention models. Effective prevention strictly follows the five basic phases found in the Strategic Prevention Framework. These models include using evidence-based programs and environmental plans to address selected priority risk and protective factors to have a healthy influence on youth development and community well-being.

Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development Programs is a respectable registry of evidence-based positive youth development programs designed to encourage the health and well-being of children and teens. Blueprints programs are family, school, or community-based and target all levels of need — from broad prevention programs that encourage positive behaviors while decreasing negative behaviors, to highly-targeted programs for at-risk children and troubled teens, that get them back on track. The use of these programs is supported by SUMH.

The Utah Evidence-Based Workgroup was also created in response to the need to identify other evidence-based, substance use disorder prevention programs, considered effective in our state. The workgroup is made up of experts in the fields of prevention and evaluation. Using the Tiers of Effectiveness, programs are tested and coached through the certification process to become recognized as an evidence-based program.