Opioid Use Disorder Prevention in Washington

Dear Washington State Prevention Specialists,

As you know, the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA), Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery intends to award multiple contracts to implement substance use disorder prevention services, focusing on opioid use disorder prevention in Washington State, using a culturally competent and health equity lens.

The Opioid Prevention Plus Wellness (PPW) program is an evidence-informed screening and brief prevention intervention that can be provided to youth and young adults individually or in groups to prevent opioid use disorder and promote protective healthy behaviors including physical activity, nutrition, sleep and stress control using a scripted protocol and PowerPoint slides.

Opioid PPW can easily be tailored to youth populations by altering the images of youth shown in the program PowerPoint slides to match those of participants, as well as by customizing content addressing cultural differences of high-risk youth groups with assistance from program developers.

In addition to the Opioid PPW program for youth, there is a parallel Parent Opioid PPW program to train parents and caregivers to provide positive image and behavior communication and goal setting to youth at home to reinforce prevention messaging and support their mental and physical development.

Lastly, the Opioid PPW Media Campaign provides a third environmental strategy that can further support the Opioid PPW youth and parent programs and strengthen communication, self-regulation skills, self-efficacy and both prevention and healthy behavior promotion among participating youth.

For more information about Prevention Plus Wellness youth, parent and media campaign programs and online training for program implementers and trainers on our website: https://preventionpluswellness.com or email info@preventionpluswellness.com