What is the GPRA and Who Should Complete It?

Our team periodically shares some basic information about the GPRA for new staff or as a refresher for current staff. If your CSB/agency has new staff members, this will provide a brief overview of what the GPRA is and when to administer it. New staff can also request support with a GPRA orientation from a member of the TA team.

What is the GPRA?

Virginia received a federal State Opioid Response (SOR) grant, designed to improve access and availability of opioid use disorder (OUD) and/or stimulant use disorder treatment services and increase the number of people who receive treatment for these disorders. The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) is a required evaluation tool for this funding and is administered by Community Services Board (CSB) staff across Virginia. Client-level data are collected including demographics, ICD10 diagnostic categories, substance use and misuse, mental health and physical health functioning, and other key variables. A CSB/agency staff member must ask the client the survey questions in an interview format; clients cannot fill out the survey themselves. OMNI Institute provides training and technical assistance (TA) to CSBs/agencies to support them in administering the GPRA.

Who Should Complete a GPRA?

Clients receiving activities funded by SOR or working with a staff members whose position is SOR-funded should be invited to participate in the evaluation (and those consenting should complete a GPRA):

• Medication-Assisted Treatment

• Therapy

• Intensive Outpatient Services

• Peer Support

• Drop-In Center

• Peer Groups

• Child Care

• Transportation

• Vouchers

When are GPRAs Administered?

All clients should be administered the GPRA survey at three timepoints: at intake to services, six months after intake, and discharge from services. The weekly tracking sheet in your Dropbox folder can help you manage these timepoints.

• The intake GPRA is the first GPRA survey, completed when the client first receives SOR-funded services.

• The follow-up GPRA is completed approximately 6 months after the intake GPRA, even if the client has already been discharged from services and completed a discharge GPRA. The follow-up window is open between 5 to 8 months after the intake GPRA.

• The discharge GPRA is conducted when the client is discharged from treatment/recovery services. This can occur before or after a follow-up GPRA.

Additional Resources

• GPRA On-Boarding Guide

• GPRA Administration Tips and Best Practices

• GPRA FAQ

• GPRA Brief Orientation & Refresher Training Recording

• Intake GPRA Full Training Recording

• Follow-Up & Discharge GPRA Training Recording

Kudos to Horizon CSB

In 2022, we have been sharing some shout-outs about CSBs or Agencies that are doing well with their intakes, follow-ups, engaging and supporting clients, and/or those that demonstrate a "spirit of inquiry" when engaging with our TA Team on GPRA administration issues.

This month, we'd like to send some kudos out to Horizon CSB for their strong follow-up interview rate of 70%. They also routinely use their GPRA data to support their clients' progress. They review and compare both the intake and follow-up BARC-10 scores along with some changes in GPRA follow-up responses to demonstrate tangible progress and share these with their clients. They shared this with OMNI: "They [clients] get a real sense of the progress that they have made when we do the surveys."

Great work, Horizon team!

If you have questions about how to better use your data, reach out to the OMNI TA team. Also, we are hosting a Community Forum on Understanding and Sharing your Data. We hope to see you there!

REMINDER! Join DBHDS and OMNI for a SOR Community Forum: Understanding and Sharing Data on Tue 4/19 at 11am ET

The OMNI and DBHDS Teams invite you to join in our second CSB/Agency Treatment Community Forum, and our first of 2022. Per popular request, we will provide the opportunity for a facilitated discussion on understanding and sharing your data.

The Forum is Tuesday, April 19th from 11am-noon ET. Please click here to register for the Forum if you have not yet done so.

• First, DBHDS will provide some important updates for all on SOR III and highlight the importance of GPRA.

• Then, OMNI will provide a very quick refresher on the various reports and data sets we produce for DBHDS and for your agency. These include data from the GPRA and your quarterly survey responses. We'll also briefly review the VASIS (Virginia Social Indicator Study) Dashboard.

• OMNI will provide some tips on sharing your data, too. Overall, this is an informal forum during which all can hear from each other about how to use and share data to tell a story. We'll learn from each other, ask questions, and share existing best practices.

• Why is this so important? One reason: Sustainability! You can repurpose data that you already have in grant applications and more.

• We will also spotlight two agencies who successfully use reports or data to inform their teams, community, funders, and stakeholders.

Questions? Reach out to us at SORSupport@omni.org. See you in the Forum!

SOR II Year 2 Quarter 2 Treatment and Recovery Services Survey

It's time to complete the SOR II Year 2 Quarter 2 Treatment and Recovery Services Survey! Contacts that completed the Year 2 Quarter 1 survey (or contacts indicated for Quarter 2 outreach within the Year 2 Quarter 1 survey) for your agency received an email on Friday, 4/1 with specific instructions for survey completion. If you did not receive this email and believe you should have, please contact SORSupport@omni.org.

Please refer to the Quarterly Survey resources page to review applicable information and resources relevant to completing the survey. These include:

• Quarterly Survey Instruction Guide: provides an overview of survey basics and specifics survey question guidance.

• Quarter 2 Treatment and Recovery Services Survey Questions: PDF file of questions asked in the Quarter 2 Treatment and Recovery Reporting Survey

Quarter 2 of the SOR II grant ended March 31, 2022. Survey responses should reflect all of Quarter 2 (January 1 - March 31, 2022). This survey is due no later than Friday, April 15th - this deadline is firm due to SAMHSA reporting requirements.

Please reach out to us at SORSupport@omni.org with any questions, concerns, or recommendations about this survey. Thank you all for your help with this survey – it is greatly appreciated!

SOR CSB/Agency Community Forum: Understanding and Sharing Data on Tue 4/19 at 11am ET

The OMNI and DBHDS Teams invite you to join in our second CSB/Agency Treatment Community Forum, and our first of 2022. Per popular request, we will provide the opportunity for a facilitated discussion on understanding and sharing your data.

The Forum is Tuesday, April 19th from 11am-noon ET. Please click here to register for the Forum.

OMNI will provide a very quick refresher on the various reports and data sets we produce for DBHDS and for your agency. Much of the data in these reports comes from the GPRA and from your quarterly survey responses. We'll also briefly review the VASIS (Virginia Social Indicator Study) Dashboard. This is an informal forum during which all can hear from each other about how to use and share data to tell a story. We'll learn from each other, ask questions, and share existing best practices.

We also plan to spotlight a couple agencies who successfully use data to inform their teams, community, funders, and stakeholders.

Questions? Reach out to us at SORSupport@omni.org. See you in the Forum!

Kudos to Planning District 1

In 2022, we have been sharing some shout-outs about CSBs or Agencies that are doing well with their intakes, follow-ups, engaging and supporting clients, and/or those that demonstrate a "spirit of inquiry" when engaging with our TA Team on GPRA administration issues.

 This month, we'd like to send some kudos out to Planning District 1 (PD1) for their steady intake GPRA numbers and for increasing their follow-up interview rate over time (now at 62%). They also successfully leverage contingency management funds and incentives to better-engage their clients and encourage them to participate, especially in the follow-up interview GPRA. Great work, PD1 team!

Reporting & Correcting Duplicate Follow-ups and Other GPRA Issues

The OMNI TA Team routinely monitors the GPRA data for several issues, including cases where surveys -- especially follow-ups -- may have been duplicated. When we identify issues, our team reaches out to the main Point of Contact at your CSB for clarification and decisions. To lighten all of our workloads (including yours), we have put into place some tools and tips to help us all identify and correct issues sooner and more seamlessly.

• First, the TA Request form on the SOR website has a choice in the dropdown of reasons for contacting us: "Need to change something in a GPRA".

  • Please use the form and this choice right away if you know that you or someone at your CSB has mistakenly entered a duplicate GPRA or other information that we will need to adjust.

  • Or, use it as soon as you have discovered a correction or issue on the weekly tracking sheet in Dropbox (e.g., incorrect interview date, incorrect birthday, duplicate, etc.).

• Another way to help prevent duplicate GPRA follow-ups from being submitted is to regularly review the weekly tracking sheet that we post to Dropbox. There you might spot incorrect dates as-entered, or even duplicated GPRAs themselves, as we indicate "possible duplicate" in the notes column. When you spot these, please contact us as soon as possible to resolve the issue, using the TA Request form.

  • Note: The weekly tracking sheets also identify the follow-up window which is intended to help prevent CSBs from completing follow-ups that are too early or too late. Remember, the "6-month" follow up window falls between month 6 and month 9 after the intake interview date.

  • If you do not yet have access to your CSB's Dropbox folder, please use the TA Request form on the SOR website to request access.

• A number of CSBs have set up internal tracking systems in tandem with the tracking sheets. These systems may help eliminate duplication or completions outside the follow-up window from taking place. If you would like to explore some options that might support or improve your internal tracking and GPRA review process, please contact us at SORSupport@omni.org. Page 2 of this resource has great ideas for you as well, in this regard.