Current Evaluation and Engaged Research Projects

As of July 16, 2022, anyone in the United States can call or text 988 or use an online chat tool to access the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The purpose of the 988 Cooperative Agreement is to improve state and territory response to 988 contacts originating in the state/territory by: (1) recruiting, hiring and training behavioral health workforce to staff local 988/Lifeline centers to respond, intervene, and provide follow-up to individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis; (2) engaging Lifeline crisis centers to unify 988 response across states/territories; and (3) expanding the crisis center staffing and response structure needed for the successful implementation of 988. UWPHI provides monitoring, quality improvement, and evaluation services around program data in Wisconsin. UWPHI has also created a public-facing 988 data dashboard for Wisconsin, which is updated on a monthly basis.

Evaluation Staff: Goodrich (co-PI), Skalitzky (co-PI), Smith

Implementation Partners: Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin, Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Funder: U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

The Great Lakes Addiction Technology Transfer Center Cooperative Agreement (ATTC) supports Health and Human Services Region 5, covering Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The purpose of this SAMHSA funded program is to develop and strengthen the specialized behavioral health care and primary health care workforce that provides substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and recovery support services. The ATTC works to accelerate the adoption and implementation of evidence-based, community informed, and promising SUD treatment and recovery-oriented practices and services; heighten the awareness, knowledge, and skills of the workforce that addresses the needs of people with substance use or other co-occurring health disorders; and foster regional and national alliances among practitioners, researchers, policy makers, funders, and the recovery community. With this program, SAMHSA aims to increase the capacity of specialized behavioral and primary health care providers to provide high-quality, effective services for clients with SUD and co-occurring disorders. 

Evaluation Staff: Linnan, Walsh-Felz

Implementation Partners: UW Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies (UW CHESS)

Funder: U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) via UW CHESS

Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT) is a SAMHSA funded grant that was awarded to Community Advocates, Inc. MHAT provides training to Milwaukee County residents who are at risk of experiencing or experiencing mental health issues and have been traditionally under-served by the mental health system. The program focuses on training the target population, as well as their personal networks, human service professionals, first responders, and community stakeholders. This program provides trainings to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental disorders, de-escalation techniques, and links to referrals for appropriate services. UWPHI is conducting the evaluation of this program.

Evaluation staff: Linnan (PI)

Funder: SAMHSA via Community Adovcates

The purposes of the Wisconsin AWARE project are to make schools safer, improve school climates, increased capacity to identify warning signs of mental health problems among children and make appropriate referrals to mental health care, and increase capacity of the state and local education agencies to connect children and youth with behavioral health issues with needed services. The UW Population Health Institute’s evaluation of this project allows the communities to accurately track mental health referrals and service delivery, as well as providing technical assistance to the participating communities, Adams-Friendship & Ashland School Districts.

Evaluation Staff: Nuñez (PI), Amos, Pykett

Funder: U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) via Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

The purpose of the SOR grants is to address the opioid overdose crisis by providing resources for increasing access to FDA-approved medications for the treatment of opioid use disorder (MOUD), and for supporting the continuum of prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery support services for opioid use disorder (OUD) and other concurrent substance use disorders. The SOR program also supports the continuum of care for stimulant misuse and use disorders, including for cocaine and methamphetamine. The SOR program aims to help reduce unmet treatment needs and opioid-related overdose deaths. UWPHI provides training and technical assistance to support program implementation, as well as monitoring and evaluation services around program data for the SOR-4 grant.

Evaluation staff: Linnan (PI), Skalitzky, Walsh-Felz, Amos, LaFayette, Joyner

Funder: U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

The Tribal Overdose Prevention (TOP) project partners with three federally recognized tribes in Wisconsin to create and implement comprehensive substance use prevention and intervention services. The project will include ongoing needs assessments of the Tribal Nations of Wisconsin with regards to substance use and opioid overdose; reducing opioid overdose-related deaths and adverse events among the target population; developing a comprehensive prevention program to address opioid overdose-related deaths and adverse events; and, providing outreach to opioid users who have survived an overdose to connect them with appropriate services and supports. UWPHI provides monitoring, quality improvement, and evaluation services around program data.

Evaluation Staff: Linnan (co-PI), Goodrich (co-PI), Little

Implementation Partners: The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa,  Lac Court Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Funder: U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

The Dane County District Attorney’s Office Deferred Prosecution – Opioid Diversion Program (DPP-O) is a pretrial diversion program that provides individuals with opioid and methamphetamine use disorders with pre- and post-charging diversion from justice system involvement by providing assessment, referrals to treatment, case management, and connection to other needed resources. Enhancing the program through the use of program evaluation support will provide the opportunity for program services and practices to more closely conform to evidence-based standards and practices through fidelity assessment and will allow for the use of data for ongoing program improvement. Funded by the WI Department of Justice Treatment Alternatives and Diversion Program (TAD)from 2022-2026.

Evaluation Staff: Goodrich (PI)

Implementation Partners: Dane County District Attorney’s Office

Funder: Wisconsin Department of Justice

The Madison Police Department received funding to improve public safety and health in Madison and Dane County by diverting individuals suffering from substance use from the criminal justice system through a framework of treatment referral and engagement. The Pathways to Recovery initiative includes proactive naloxone distribution, active outreach with responses to overdose-related incidents, and pre-arrest diversion for eligible drug-related offenses. UWPHI provides technical assistance with program development, evaluation plan development and implementation, the use of evaluation results for program improvement, and summary of evaluation results.

Goodrich J, Taber E. Pathways to Recovery Madison and Dane County Preliminary Evaluation Report. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, April 2022.

Evaluation Staff: Goodrich (PI), Taber

Implementation Partners: Madison Police Department, Dane County Department of Human Services, Safe Communities of Madison, and Madison Fire Department

Funder: The Bureau of Justice Assistance and Opioid Settlement Funding via the Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Fit Families is a child obesity prevention program targeting parents of 2- to 4-year-old children at Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Projects around Wisconsin. The overall project goals include increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables, decreasing intake of sweetened beverages and juice, increasing daily physical activity, and decreasing screen time to reduce the risk of becoming overweight or obese.  Fit Families is funded by USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education.

Evaluation Staff: Linnan (PI), Joyner

Funder: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education (SNAP-ED) via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Milwaukee Family Intervention Services (MFIS) is a case management program administered by Community Advocates that serves Milwaukee County residents in need of intervention services for their family. MFIS is specially for caregivers and youth (aged 10-17) experiencing mental health issues, behavioral concerns, truancy, educational concerns, and CHIPS/JIPS petitions. 

Evaluation staff: Linnan, Walsh-Felz

Implementation Partners: Community Advocates

Tribal Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) is an adolescent pregnancy prevention program implemented in two tribal communities in Wisconsin. UWPHI has been contracted as the evaluators, in partnership with the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council (GLITC). Tribal PREP is a 5-year grant that seeks to decrease adolescent birth and STI rates, improve youth self-efficacy, and promote positive youth development.

Evaluation Staff: Smith (PI), Nuñez, Amos

Funder: U.S. Administration for Children and Families via Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council

This grant supports independent monitoring and evaluation of positive youth development programs administered through Wisconsin’s implementation of the federal PREP program.

Evaluation Staff: Smith (PI), Raygor, Taber

Funder: U.S. Administration for Children & Families, via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

This grant supports independent monitoring and evaluation of positive youth development programs administered through Wisconsin’s implementation of the federal SRAE program.

Evaluation Staff: Smith (PI), Raygor, Taber

Funder: U.S. Administration for Children & Families, via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

This grant supports monitoring and evaluation of evidence-based positive youth development programs administered through Wisconsin’s implementation of the federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention program.

Evaluation Staff: Smith (PI), Raygor, Amos

Funder: HHS Office of Population Affairs, via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

The Stronger Families Milwaukee program provides voluntary services to families and children in Milwaukee County who are at risk of child protective services (CPS) intervention. Referrals come from the Department of Milwaukee Child Protection Services if there are no identified safety threats in the home. Engagement Specialists work directly with families to provide case management services to improve parent and child stability and to connect the family to resources that will help prevent re-entry into the child welfare system. The program is administered by a consortium consisting of Community Advocates, Inc., The Parenting Network, and Neu Life.

Evaluation staff: Linnan, Walsh-Felz

Implementing partners: Community Advocates, Inc., The Parenting Network, and Neu Life.

This grant supports independent monitoring and evaluation of sexual violence prevention programs administered through Wisconsin’s implementation of the federal RPE program.

Evaluation Staff: Vigna, Little

Funder: Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) via Wisconsin Department of Health Services

The Compassion Resilience Toolkit is a free resource for schools, parents/caregivers, and health and human professionals that promotes wellness, self-compassion, compassion for others, and compassion resilience. The Toolkit has been disseminated widely to a variety of organizations and individuals. UWPHI is assisting with summarizing data collected to date, building tools for documenting implementation and monitoring fidelity, and evaluating a pilot fidelity measure tool.

Evaluation Staff: Goodrich (PI)

Implementation Partners: Rogers Behavioral Health, Wisconsin Department of Instruction, Wisconsin Safe & Healthy Schools Center

Funder: Rogers Behavioral Health & the Wisconsin Department of Instruction

The Community Academic Aging Research Network (CAARN) is expanding strategies to support authentic partnership between community and academic partners engaged in collaborative research.  CAARN is interested in building partners’ capacity to use key principles and practices that are known to support successful community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships. UWPHI is partnering with CAARN in the evaluation of these efforts. Data from multiple stakeholders and multiple methods will be combined to understand the extent to which CBPR principles are working in the CAARN network, among its staff and leadership, and among affiliated research teams.

Evaluation Staff: Lindberg (PI)

Funder: National Institutes of Health

The Center for Mental Health Implementation Support (CMHIS) provides support for organizations and systems seeking to implement effective practices to deliver the best mental health care. The CMHIS Midwest Hub is housed in the Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies (CHESS) here at UW-Madison. UWPHI staff serve as the Evaluators for the Midwest Hub and provide assistance with required data collection, reporting, and program evaluation expertise.

Evaluation Staff: Goodrich (PI), Lafayette

Implementation Partners: UW Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies (UW CHESS), Stanford Center for Dissemination and Implementation

Funder: U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) via UW CHESS

Using Rock County as a pilot project, in the first phase, this project intends to talk directly to decision-makers of alcohol policies: local elected officials and the professionals who are involved in alcohol policy decisions either directly or as advisors to elected officials, such as city and county administrators, staff, and commissioners. The project wants to learn as much as possible about the data and arguments they say would be most helpful to them and that they would be most willing to use when considering alcohol policies. Once this information is collected, it will be used in a second phase to craft informational tools and strategies to support policymakers’ needs. These tools will be locally customizable. By providing applicable information and data, the tools will support local health departments, coalitions, and advocates in their efforts to improve their local alcohol environment in communities throughout the state.

Evaluation staff: Feder, Lindberg

Partners: Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW)

Funder:  Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment

The Wisconsin Association of Sober Housing (WASH) will work with MCW and the UW Population Health Institute to develop a local recovery ecosystem in Green Bay. Their approach, based on a social model of recovery, emphasizes mutual support among residents to cultivate internal resources like self-esteem and coping skills, complemented by external community support. The project aims to establish a recovery residence network, foster a collaborative recovery ecosystem, and create a toolkit to aid other communities in enhancing their recovery infrastructure across Wisconsin.

Evaluation staff: Feder

Partners:  Wisconsin Association of Sober Housing (WASH), Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW)

Funder:  Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment