CHARLESTON, W.Va.— Educating practitioners on drug and mental health prevention strategies is the main topic of the 2024 West Virginia Prevention Summit Thursday at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
The summit began in 2020, where it was only offered virtually but has since expanded to in-person with a virtual option and is hosted by the WV Department of Human Services Bureau for Behavioral Health. At the event they had different tables or exhibits hosted by different drug related organizations, for people to go to and learn about what those particular groups do.
The summit aims to provide strategies for prevention, provide alternatives for people who are suffering from substance abuse and mental health. Last year, West Virginia had the fourth highest percentage, 52.1%, of individuals with substance or alcohol dependencies who began and received treatment.
Kimberly Shoemake
Prevention Lead Coordinator with Prestera Kimberly Shoemake said that the summit’s main goal is to help people understand what prevention is and give them tools in order to help prevention.
“So, this prevention summit is really just about the foundation of prevention, so learning about this Strategic Prevention Framework and learning about what prevention is and how it works,” Shoemake said.
The Strategic Prevention Framework is a tool that was made by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration so people can use the five steps that will help them assess what they can do in their communities to help with prevention. Assessment allows you to look at your community and see where the substance abuse problems are.
Capacity building helps you see what the community needs in order to help prevent the substance abuse problems. Planning is for the development of desired outcomes and identified needs in a community. Implementation which means putting the plans into action and evaluation is for you to assess the effectiveness of the plans.
Shoemake also said that while they want to teach prevention, they also wanted to show the people who are struggling with substance abuse or mental health problems that there are resources out there for them that will help them get better.
“We are here to provide alternative to bad choices, so helping people learn what signs to look for and just how to ask for help,” Shoemake said. “And just break down the walls of stigma, because no one wakes up and says that I want to be addicted to drugs and so by providing them with alternative and things to do will change that mindset.”
And Executive Director of West Virginia Prevention Solutions Elizabeth Shahan says to her prevention is all about making sure that people don’t reach the point where they reach crisis, with her main audience being the youths in the communities.
Elizabeth Shahan
“So, connecting youth with peers in a positive way, connecting youths with positive adult role models where they can ask questions feel free to be themselves, understand what crisis are and really understand how to regulate emotions,” Shahan said. “We look at building evidence-based curriculum in schools and helping kids understand emotions and how to exhibit and express and be part of that emotion and understand it before they get to a crisis level.”
Shahan also said that the summit is important because they want everyone to keep their eye on prevention.
“It’s really critical that we don’t lose focus on the prevention end of this continuum because if we can focus there and spend most of our dollars in prevention, we have a one to 17 or one to 24 return on money, so if you invest a dollar in prevention you’re looking at getting 17 dollars’ worth of success, and impact, and healthy communities and people.”
She also said that with the prevention techniques, they are saving communities money because they are keeping people out of jail and prison.