The Montana Community Change Project is funded by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) through a grant called the Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG).  A requirement of the SPF SIG grant was the establishment of a State Epidemiological Workgroup (SEW).  The Montana SEW is a network of individuals knowledgeable about and experienced in working on Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs (ATOD) data and prevention issues in Montana.  Agencies participating on the MT SEW are given in the table below.

AGENCIES ON MT SEW

• Department of Public Health & Human Services
  -Chemical Dependency Bureau
  -Children's Mental Health Bureau
  -Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program
  -Office of Vital Statistics
• Office Public Instruction
• Office of Transportation
• Office of Justice
• MT-WY Tribal Leaders Council
• Alliance for Youth
• Billings Area Indian Health Services

The MT SEW brought systematic and analytical thinking to prevention decision-making and improving the use of prevention resources by making use of available substance related data/indicators.  The MT SEW identified epidemiological data needs, gathered and interpreted data, and applied data implications to state consumption and consequence patterns to determine the most pressing substance abuse problems in Montana.

After six months of work, the MT SEW produced a Statewide Epidemiological Report (copy available via link on this page) which included recommendations to the Governor’s Office and the State Workgroup regarding prevention priorities for the Montana strategic prevention plan.  The MT SEW recommended prevention priorities were approved and became the priorities for Montana’s Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grants.

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MONTANA PREVENTION PRIORITIES

Primary Target

Binge drinking with an emphasis on underage binge drinking.  Binge drinking refers to having five or more drinks on any one occasion.

Areas of Concern

Drinking and driving with an emphasis on teenagers and young adults.  This is based on the fact that not only are students and adults binge drinking but they are getting in cars and being injured or killed and injuring or killing others.

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Graphs of trend data for adult and underage binge drinking, drinking and driving, and alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes for Montana and the US is available via the “SPF SIG State Data Presentation” link on this page.

Contacts for additional information on the MT State Epidemiological Workgroup:

Jackie Jandt
Planning and Outcome Officer
Chemical Dependency Bureau
State of Montana
Addictive and Mental Disorders Division
Phone: 406-444-9656
Email: jjandt@mt.gov

Daphne Herling
Chairperson of MT SEW
Bureau of Business and Economic Research
University of Montana
Phone: 406-243-2725
Email: Daphne.Herling@business.umt.edu