Office of National Drug Control Policy

Examples of Community Benefit Collaborations between Community Coalitions and Non-Profit Hospitals

Communities That Care Coalition and Partnership for Youth Franklin Regional Council of Governments

Formed in 2002 in Franklin County, Massachusetts, the Communities That Care Coalition (CTCC) strives to bring Franklin County schools, parents, youth, and the community together to build community collaboration, decrease substance use and violence, promote academic success, and foster healthy youth development.   CTCC is a Drug-Free Communities Support Program (DFC) and DFC Mentoring graduate, a current STOP Act grantee, and a Massachusetts Bureau of Substance Abuse Services grantee. 

CTCC and the Baystate Franklin Medical Center (BFMC) formed successful a partnership to address substance use issues in their community.  CTCC recognized that Community Benefit could help them reach their goals to prevent drug use in their community.  Both BFMC and CTCC brought resources to the partnership that has helped it flourish.  CTCC brought data, expertise on substance use prevention, and community partners and the hospital brought an interest helping the community and resources through Community Benefit.

In 2015 the BFMC, through its Community Benefit effort, provided a grant of $80,000 per year for 3 years to support CTCC in several areas: coalition staffing, youth survey implementation, strategic planning, integrating prevention curriculum in schools, and parent education efforts.

Franklin County and North Quabbin have seen reductions in youth substance use (i.e., alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes, and prescription drugs) and improvements in reducing risk factors (i.e., poor family management, laws and norms.)

Learn more about CTCC’s work here:
Community Benefit and Local Substance Use Prevention Webinar: Community Benefit and Local Substance Use Prevention

 

A Model of Hospital and Community Collaboration: Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Community Health Improvement and the Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is unique in its long-standing efforts to collaborate with communities to achieve sustainable improvements in health and well-being, including preventing substance use disorders.  Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Center for Community Health Improvement (CCHI) was established in 1995 and in 1996 the first CCHI and community coalition collaboration was created.  CCHI works in partnership with coalitions to identify a strategy, support aligned activities, establish shared measurement practices, help build collective support, advance policy, and mobilize resources to support coalitions.

The Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition (CSAC) was formed to address high rates of drug overdose calls, hospitalizations, and deaths.  In Charlestown, the EMS heroin overdose call rate was 40.8/10,000 persons compared to 12.2/10,000 persons for Boston overall.  In an effort to prevent substance misuse and its consequences, MGH, community residents, and stakeholders worked to develop a plan.  To better support CSAC’s community work, MGH initially hired the Coalition Director through Community Benefit resources.  Today, the Community Benefit supports just over 43 percent of the CSAC’s work.

Also unique to this non-profit hospital and community collaboration was how MGH used local data to change how it cares for patients with substance use disorders.  The communities of Chelsea, Revere and Charlestown identified substance use, and opioid use in particular, as their most pressing health concern. Using data from the community health needs assessment, MGH developed a comprehensive new clinical initiative to transform care for patients with substance use disorders. The initiative was built on long-standing community-based prevention work and became the leading clinical priority of the hospital’s strategic plan. For its efforts, Massachusetts General Hospital received the 2015 Foster G. McGaw Prize for Excellence in Community Service.

Learn more about this model here:
Community Benefit and Local Substance Use Prevention Webinar: Community Benefit and Local Substance Use Prevention

 

Allies for Substance Abuse Prevention of Anderson County in Tennessee

The Allies for Substance Abuse Prevention of Anderson County (ASAP) works with a broad range of community partners to prevent substance use and its consequences.  ASAP also works closely with the local public health department and two non-profit hospitals, Methodist Medical Center (MMC) and Ridgeview Behavioral Health Services (Ridgeview). 

Collaborative efforts between the coalition and Ridgeview are long-standing.  Hospital staff were among the founding members of ASAP and they continue to be active.  Additionally, a physician from MMC serves on the ASAP Board of Directors.  Community health needs assessments conducted by MMC and Ridgeview, in collaboration with local public health departments, showed substance use disorders to be a major concern.  

ASAP has been a key player in helping hospitals and the community.  Working together with law enforcement and the business community, in less than a year, compliance with underage drinking laws increased by 10 percent, and the perception of harm of alcohol increased by 14 percent.

When there was a significant increase in Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome at MMC, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Director created a task force to develop solutions. ASAP was on the task force and provided its strategic planning expertise to the collaboration.  MMC also works with ASAP on efforts to curb methamphetamine use.   Additionally, ASAP helped develop a community health needs assessment for Ridgeview.

Learn more about this model here: 
Community Benefit and Local Substance Use Prevention Webinar: Community Benefit and Local Substance Use Prevention

 

The Muskegon Community Health Project

Since 1994, the Muskegon Community Health Project convened community groups to increase access to dental care and health care, including treatment for substance use disorders. One of the groups, the Coalition for a Drug Free Muskegon County, is an ONDCP-funded Drug Free Community (DFC) coalition with over 70 members from public health, law enforcement, substance abuse agencies, health care, and student organizations.

To reduce the availability of prescription drugs, the DFC coalition established the Muskegon Area Medication Disposal Project (MDP). DFC leaders facilitated meetings and acted as a fiduciary for the effort and leveraged hospital resources.  The hospital provided a range of resources to support the MDP including assistance organizing the events, supporting marketing, branding, and communications, providing supplies, and paying for costs for drug disposal events.

The hospital has also been integral in sustaining the overall work of the coalition after it graduated from the DFC program.   In 2014, the coalition was awarded the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s Got Outcomes Coalition of the Year Award.

More information on the Health Project and the Coalition for a Drug Free Muskegon County can be found at www.mchp.org.