About substance use prevention and mental health promotion

DMHA’s Bureau of Mental Health Promotion and Addiction Prevention provides oversight and administration of the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant to ensure funding that addresses statewide prevention and mental health promotion priorities. It supports evidence-based initiatives that serve to prevent and reduce substance abuse and mental illness, reduce the negative impact of substance abuse and mental illness, and promote overall behavioral health. Suicide, problem gambling, underage drinking, binge drinking, tobacco and illicit drug use, and prescription drug misuse are examples of issues that prevention initiatives may target.

Mission: To reduce substance use and abuse and promote behavioral health across the lifespan of Indiana citizens by maintaining a coordinated, effective and accountable system of prevention and behavioral health promotion services.

Vision: Sustainable environments that nurture, assist and empower all Indiana citizens to access and experience optimum physical, emotional and mental health.

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Indiana prevention

The Prevention Strategic Plan for 2019-2023 outlines the priority areas, prevention goals and guiding principles of Indiana’s efforts to address substance misuse prevention and mental health promotion.

Click here to view the prevention regional map.

Priority areas

Indiana has identified five priority areas and developed accompanying strategic initiatives and measurable action steps to help guide the state’s efforts:

1. Strengthen community infrastructure
2. Build stakeholder engagement
3. Enhance collaboration
4. Increase capacity to Implement evidence-based prevention
5. Create normative change

Prevention goals

In order to prevent and reduce substance misuse and its’ impact on youth, adults and families in Indiana, the following prevention topics will direct the state’s efforts:

• Prevent underage alcohol use
• Prevent binge drinking
• Prevent tobacco sales to underage youth
• Reduce the use of tobacco in youth
• Reduce illicit drug use

By SFY 2023, the consequences of substance misuse in Indiana will be decreased as of result of evidence-based prevention programs, diverse strategies and the application of the Strategic Prevention Framework throughout the state.

Indiana’s guiding principles

DMHA’s work is aligned and guided by the principles identified by the governor of the state of Indiana. These key principles, identified by the Indiana Commission to Combat Drug Abuse, provide a framework of how this prevention plan will be executed in Indiana. These principles are:

• Data driven: Data will inform all systems and programs created for government, individuals, families and providers—evolving as learning increases and as Indiana’s drug crisis changes.
• Comprehensive and holistic: Indiana’s approach will be multi-faceted and focused on substance misuse prevention, early intervention, treatment, recovery and enforcement.
• Collaborative: The state will align and focus the efforts of multiple state agencies that currently provide substance misuse services and resources. Further, Indiana’s approach makes clear that local communities, state officials and the federal government must all have a stake in helping to overcome the drug crisis.

The Prevention Strategic Plan for 2019-2023 can be accessed by clicking here.