TA Outreach Guidance

Our SOR TA Team consists of five dedicated OMNI staff members, each taking turns weekly to be on email duty and promptly addressing your questions. While you may interact with different team members from week to week, rest assured that our team collaborates closely to stay informed about any ongoing or emerging CSB issues.

To ensure the most efficient and accurate support for your GPRA-related inquiries, we wanted to remind you of our key communication practices between our TA Team and the CSBs/Agencies we serve. Please use the following preferred communication channels to reach us so that we may provide you with timely and precise assistance:

1. Request TA from our team through our Website: Request TA — Virginia SOR Support

2. Email us directly at: SORSupport@OMNI.org, rather than emailing TAs at their individual TA email addresses

We deeply appreciate your commitment to data-driven inquiry and the impactful work you do in your communities. We look forward to supporting you with your GPRA processing needs.

OMNI Kudos to CARITAS for Reaching Their SOR III Intake GPRA Goal Early!

As we near the last quarter of the SOR grant year, we want to continue highlighting CSBs or Agencies that are doing great at meeting their intake and follow-up goals, engaging and supporting clients, and demonstrating a "spirit of inquiry" when engaging with our TA Team on GPRA administration issues.

This month, we’d like to give the CARITAS team a special shoutout! CARITAS has already reached 100% of its annual Intake GPRA target completion goal, showing great diligence in completing these important GPRA interviews. Kudos!

CARITAS Healing Place Evaluation Assistant Steven Wilson shared his journey from being a recovery participant in CARITAS' programs to continuing as the Evaluation Assistant there. He feels that navigating the programs as a participant has been instrumental in his holistic approach to reaching their intake goals by connecting with participants and starting their recovery journey. He understands the challenges individuals face with scheduling and uses his own experience to enhance the support systems within the programs. Steven shared tips that have helped them meet their intake goal early:

“I have been able to track participants and their progress, which has allowed me to identify the best times for survey scheduling. One of the key improvements I have implemented is offering additional appointment times to the existing schedule of survey interviews. By integrating these new appointment times, we can ensure that every participant receives the intake survey. One of the most impactful aspects of my experience has been the opportunity to connect with the participants who are just beginning their journey. This connection not only allows me to give back to the community that has supported me but also enables me to understand and relate to the schedules and challenges that new participants face.”

We know that everyone is working hard toward meeting their intake goal as set out by DBHDS this year, and we are here to support as CSBs/Agencies aim to reach their goal.

If you have questions about this or need support with any aspect of GPRA administration, please reach out to our team at OMNI: SORsupport@omni.org

OMNI Kudos to Mount Rogers CSB for SOR III Follow-Up Interview GPRA Rate

For this month's Kudos, we would like to highlight Mount Rogers! This agency has demonstrated a high interview follow-up rate of 70%, putting them on target to meet the SAMHSA-required follow-up interview rate of 80%.

We acknowledge that follow-up interviews can be tricky and challenging to capture. To support other CSBs and agencies, Mount Rogers has shared some of their best practices and tips with us:

• Tip 1: We’ve designated one person to be responsible for reviewing the report/tracking sheet and sending reminders out to staff responsible for follow-ups. She’s also responsible for answering questions staff may have.  We think having a single point person has streamlined communication in this area. Several staff commented that she has been instrumental in this process.

• Tip 2: SOR GPRA’s are on every agenda for regular meetings held by the programs required to complete them. This offers both a friendly reminder to existing staff as well as an opportunity to orient new staff who may not have been informed upon hire. It’s stressed to staff how integral these surveys are to receiving funding to help people.

• Tip 3: One of our amazing peers shared: “If I am able to get in touch with the individuals that have taken part in the GPRA survey they usually always agree to complete the follow-up and discharge portions. I make sure to emphasize how much we appreciate them taking the time to participate in the survey and how important their experiences in recovery are in helping to determine future programs, seeing if the programs are working, and what resources our community may need to better serve individuals with substance use disorders. Most of the individuals say that helping others in recovery is important to them.”    

~ KJ Holbrook, LCSW

We congratulate KJ and the Mount Rogers team as they continue to engage and support their clients in their treatment journey and support OMNI in the "spirit of inquiry."

We know that everyone is working hard toward meeting the SAMHSA Follow-up Interview rate of 80%. We also want to remind everyone of a few helpful resources:

• To facilitate follow-up conversations with clients the Follow-up Reminder Script resource helps generate ideas and tips for each level of engagement with GPRA clients.

• The GPRA Administration Tips and Best Practices Sheet provides tips on setting up an internal tracking system to help your organization efficiently complete GPRAs and other helpful tips around GPRA completion.

• The Client Engagement Sheet is designed to be shared directly with clients to inform them about the GPRA’s purpose and what it means to be involved in the evaluation. The section “Why do a follow-up GPRA?”, on page 2, highlights the benefits to the client, the providers, and the community.

If you have questions about this, need support with any aspect of GPRA administration, or have your own helpful tips/processes to share, please get in touch with our team at OMNI at SORsupport@omni.org.

Reminder to Click "Submit" When Completing GPRAs

Recently, there have been cases where completed GPRA intakes or follow-ups were not showing up on the weekly tracking sheets for some CSBs/Agencies. This discrepancy often occurs when you get to the end of a GPRA survey but don’t click "submit".

It is important to click "submit" at the end of each survey to ensure that completed GPRAs are accurately tracked and credited. This final step confirms the completion process and guarantees that all GPRAs are properly recorded on your weekly tracking sheets, which helps track when follow-ups are due. Additionally, hitting “submit” at the end prompts a confirmation email to be sent (if requested). Otherwise, you will not receive a confirmation email and the survey will not count.

Steps to Follow:

1. Complete the GPRA survey as usual.

2. Before closing the survey, make sure to click through to the end and click the "submit" button, as shown below.

3. Once submitted, the completed GPRA will be recorded and you will receive a confirmation email (if requested). The survey should then appear in your next tracking sheet.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out to our TA Team at SORSupport@omni.org.

Share your SOR Treatment & Recovery Success Stories with OMNI and DBHDS!

Now that we are well into the second year of SOR III, we thought it would be a good time to remind you that DBHDS and OMNI are always interested in receiving and learning of any SOR success stories! We are compiling these throughout the year to use in our year-end reporting. We’d love to hear from you about how your SOR funding is supporting the services you provide in your community.

We have prepared a very simple survey that will easily allow you to share some of your treatment and recovery SOR Success Stories, reflecting on the past year. There is also an opportunity to attach documents or photos.

To submit a success story, please click here to access the survey.

You can also submit a success story at any time throughout the year by visiting the survey’s permanent home on the SOR Support website here.

OMNI Kudos to CSBs/Agencies Meeting Their SOR III Year 2 Intake GPRA Target Numbers!

We are continuing to share some kudos about CSBs or Agencies doing well with intakes, follow-ups, engaging and supporting clients, and those that demonstrate a "spirit of inquiry" when engaging with our TA Team on GPRA administration issues.

This month, we’d like to share kudos to CSBs and agencies meeting their SOR III Year 2 intake target! As we’re about halfway through Year 2, the following 3 CSBs/agencies have all reached at least 100% or more of their intake targets:

• Southside CSB

• DOC

• Portsmouth

Kudos! We know that everyone is working hard toward meeting their intake targets as set by DBHDS this year. Please continue to monitor your tracking sheet and schedule your Follow-up GPRA interviews accordingly.

Our TA Team is available to help if you have questions about any aspect of the GPRA administration or would like tips on best practices. As always, feel free to reach out to us at SORsupport@omni.org.

Reminder: Timelines of SOR Grant Period and Grant Years

We have recently received an influx of questions about the SOR grant period and grant year timelines and how the GPRA surveys fit into each, so we wanted to share a high-level breakdown to elaborate on these different time points.

Current SOR 3 Grant Period: October 1st, 2022 – September 30th, 2024

- SOR 3, Grant Year 1: October 1st, 2022 – September 30th, 2023

- SOR 3, Grant Year 2: October 1st, 2023 – September 30th, 2024

The Current SOR 3 Grant Period refers to the entire duration during which the SOR 3 grant is active, spanning from October 1st, 2022, to September 30th, 2024. Within this period, we have two grant years:

Grant Year 1: running from October 1st, 2022, to September 30th, 2023. This marks the initial year of the grant’s implementation in SOR 3. It is also the federal fiscal year of 2022-23.

Grant Year 2: following Grant Year 1, this period spans from October 1st, 2023, to September 30th, 2024, concluding the grant’s SOR 3 term. It is also the federal fiscal year of 2023-24.

Our intake and discharge GPRA guidelines during the grant period are:

• Only one intake GPRA and one discharge GPRA should be completed for each client within the two-year grant period, not a single grant year.

• If a client returns to services after having already completed an intake and discharge GPRA in the same 2-year grant period, they should not undergo another set of intake and discharge GPRAs.

As always, if you have any questions, please reach out to us at SORSupport@omni.org.