Evaluation Reports

Proper reporting of evaluation background, methodology, and results is a key step to fostering understanding of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) programs and the impact they are having on the world. The findings of our evaluations are instructive for SAMHSA as the agency seeks to promote prevention programs nationwide in keeping with strategic initiative #1: prevention of substance abuse and mental illness. As the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality finishes evaluations we conduct for SAMHSA, we will post summaries of the programs as well as evaluation reports here to help the public behavioral health field learn from our work.

Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS)

Addressing the mental health needs of the estimated 13 to 20 percent of children and youth who experience a mental disorder nationwide remains a challenge for the nation’s policymakers (Perou et al., 2013). Prevention programs can play a significant role in this regard. It is therefore important to understand the processes that promote program implementation and sustainability. The first SS/HS Initiative, which was authorized in FY 1999, successfully reduced student disciplinary problems, use of alcohol and drugs, and school violence and increased students’ access to mental health services. In FY 2013, SAMHSA piloted the SS/HS state program, which built upon the lessons learned from the original initiative. In FY 2013, SAMHSA piloted the SS/HS state program (.docx | 26KB), which built upon the lessons learned from the original initiative.