The 2021 Profile includes updated Delaware and national data from 40 sources such as the Delaware School Survey, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Systems, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, and the National Survey on Children’s Health, among others. Additional chapters cover mental health and wellness, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), pre-natal substance exposure, LGBQ and T youth, and protective factors. Each chapter includes a narrative to provide context for the data presentation and “Data in Action” sections to illustrate how the data can be used to inform prevention planning, policy, and programs. The report is also downloadable bychapters. For highlights, please see the Executive Summary. The report is also accompanied by a series of related infographics.
This report explores the experiences of people with disabilities in Delaware during the 2020 pandemic by examining a number of data sources, listening sessions, and discussions with individuals involved in the COVID-19 response. A visual version of the report – an online story map – is available at https://arcg.is/19XLqD.
The report explores a myriad of risk factors that aligned during the COVID-19 pandemic to make people with disabilities among the most vulnerable segments of the population and highlights the resilience of the disability community in the face of increased social isolation, structural challenges to services, and disproportionate loss of life. The report also explores the actions taken to overcome these issues, and how these actions can be used as first steps in the path forward to decrease the disparities this community will experience in future public health emergencies.
The Delaware Journal of Public Health July 2021 focuses on the theme of Technology and Public Health. CDHS team members James Highberger and Sharon Merriman-Nai highlighted several of the Center’s projects in two articles.
The Value (and Nuances) of Mapping as a Public Health Tool describes the potential benefits of mapping technology to analyze health needs and the resources available to address these needs. However, it also points out that its value is impacted by the availability and quality of the data as well as how geographic areas are defined. The article includes examples of how CDHS and Delaware stakeholders have used mapping for public health initiatives throughout the state, including the Delaware Opioid Metric Intelligence Project (DOMIP) and the development of substance use heat maps using Delaware School Survey data.The mission and history of the State Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup is described in What is the Delaware SEOW? The SEOW, facilitated by CDHS on behalf of the Delaware Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, includes a network of more than 100 representatives of over 50 organizations throughout the state that work to promote the use of data in behavioral health prevention and treatment.
The Center for Drug and Health Studies has released its 2020 College Risk Behaviors Study (CRBS) report, produced in collaboration with Student Wellness & Health Promotion. The 2020 report includes analysis of survey data collected from 764 University of Delaware undergraduates. Topics covered in the report include alcohol consumption, other substance use, mental health, interpersonal violence, sexual assault, sexual health knowledge and practices, and demographic indicators such as LGBTQ and disability status. Key takeaways include that alcohol remains the most used substance among UD undergraduates, followed by marijuana; rates of vaping device use greatly exceeds those of just a few years ago; and that even in the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous students reported mental health concerns, sexual victimization, and interpersonal victimization.
Drawing upon data from over 30 state and national resources, the 2020 Delaware State Epidemiological Profile highlights consumption rates, trends, and risk and protective factors associated with tobacco, vaping, alcohol, marijuana, opioids, and other substance use in Delaware. The report also explores crosscutting issues such as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and mental health and wellness. Special topics include gambling, substance-exposed infants, gender and sexuality, and persons with disabilities. The Epidemiological Profile can also be viewed as individual chapters that address specific subjects.
Click here to read the 2020 Delaware State Epidemiological Profile.
Click here to navigate to specific chapters of the 2020 Delaware State Epidemiological Profile.
In a recent op-ed article, Professor Tammy Anderson of the University of Delaware’s Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, discusses the monies received by the state of Delaware from opioid lawsuit settlements and the challenging road ahead to combat Delaware’s opioid problem.
Click here to read the op-ed, “An Open Letter to Delaware about new money from Opioid Impact Fund and lawsuits.”
The CDHS research team, led by Dr. Dan O’Connell, Dr. Christy Visher, and Dr. Patricia Becker, “tested a linkage and referral to healthcare intervention for individuals on probation…The Delaware Culture of Health Project aimed to increase healthcare access for the probation population by aligning health and social service systems in a busy, urban probation office in New Castle County, Delaware.”
The findings of “this study suggests that having screening and referral services at probation offices may increase the likelihood that probationers attend a healthcare appointment.”
HeNN (Help Near & Now), an innovative iPhone and Android smartphone app that is developed by researchers at the Center for Drug and Health Studies (CDHS), now provides COVID-19 resources for SUD community and other users. Given that many people are following news about COVID-19 released by public health officials, HeNN researchers created a new function of this app. Users can access information of COVID-19 released by the US government as well as state governments of Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Delaware agency, UD researchers selected for national initiative
Center for Drug and Health Studies researchers Christy Visher and Dan O’Connell are Delaware’s principal investigators in a research project that will seek evidence-based ways to improve prisons for inmates and correctional officers.
University of Delaware researchers, partnering with the state Department of Correction, will take part in a national initiative to better understand prison conditions and ultimately make those institutions more humane, safe and rehabilitative.
Delaware was one of five states selected by the Prison Research and Innovation Initiative, a five-year project operated by the Urban Institute with support from Arnold Ventures.
In its application to take part in the initiative, the state Department of Correction designated UD’s Center for Drug and Health Studies (CDHS) to conduct the research.
“We’ve been a strong research partner with the department for a long time,” working on issues such as assisting people when they leave prison, said Christy Visher, professor of sociology and criminal justice and director of the CDHS.
“But this new initiative goes beyond helping with the transition from incarceration. This really looks at transforming the correctional system.”
Beginning this month, researchers will start the process of surveying inmates and employees of the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington to learn about their experiences. The state identified that prison, which houses about 1,500 men, as the focus of the research project.
“We’re going to have incarcerated people and correctional officers engaged in every aspect of this research from the beginning, starting with meetings and focus groups to determine how we’ll do the survey and what kinds of questions we’ll be asking,” said Daniel O’Connell, senior scientist with the CDHS. “It’s not going to be the University just coming in and implementing what we think is best.”
Visher and O’Connell are co-principal investigators for the project, which provides each of the participating states with a $100,000 grant to conduct the initial research.
The goal is to get a clearer understanding of the prison’s culture and the issues that inmates and officers see as most important, including the problems and policies they identify as critical. At the end of 2020, when the first phase of the initiative wraps up, the process will be reviewed before the next steps are determined.
“The focus of the study could begin as a narrow one — how to access health care, how to improve substance abuse treatment, how to improve interactions between the incarcerated and the employees,” Visher said. “We’re just starting, and there’s a lot still to be determined.”
The CDHS research team will be in the prison and directly involved in the study, said O’Connell, who has taught a criminal justice class every semester for 12 years through the Inside/Out program, which brings UD students to a correctional institution to study with incarcerated men and women.
“We’re not going to delegate this research,” he said. “The opportunity to actually start delving into the culture of the institutions — to do the kind of research that can lead to real changes in that culture — is fascinating to me as a sociologist.”
Prison research initiative
The Urban Institute’s Prison Research and Innovation Initiative aims to develop an evidence-based approach to prison reform, beginning with research conducted through the state correctional agencies in Delaware, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri and Vermont.
Although more than 1.3 million people are incarcerated and 200,000 correctional officers work in U.S. prisons, they are among the least transparent and most understudied public institutions, the Urban Institute said in announcing the program in January.
“This five-year project will leverage research and evidence to shine a much-needed light on prison conditions and pilot strategies to promote the well-being of people who live and work behind bars,” the institute said.
In Delaware, the state Department of Correction “is ready for this” project and for serious efforts at prison reform, Visher said.
She noted that the department’s application to take part in the initiative began by describing the 2017 uprising at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna that left correctional officer Lt. Steven Floyd dead.
“The department’s leadership knows they need to continue making substantial changes, and they’re ready to do that,” Visher said.
Center for Drug and Health Studies
The center, housed in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, conducts collaborative research in areas including substance abuse, health risk behavior, health services and health policy.
Its work has addressed such criminal justice issues in Delaware as re-entry services for those leaving prison and efforts to reduce recidivism.
“A lot of health issues intersect with criminal justice issues,” said Visher, who joined the UD faculty in 2008. She has more than 30 years of experience in policy research on crime and justice issues, particularly substance abuse and other health issues, criminal careers, communities and crime.
The CDHS is funded through sponsored research grants, focusing on Delaware and on national issues. Researchers include faculty, staff and graduate students.
There’s a new type of program that coalescences efforts from both the criminal justice and social service agencies to address the increase in overdose deaths and injuries related to substance misuse in Delaware. The “War on Drugs” policing that primarily focused on drug raid and arrest was found to be inadequate to combat drug abuse, a multifaceted social issue. People struggling with addiction need the care and help from health agencies, but arrests and incarceration can hardly address their needs. The Hero Help program was launched in May 2016 in response to the increasing rate of heroin and opioid overdoses in Delaware. This program uses law enforcement to improve treatment initiation and recovery. Rather than only accepting those who self-present to police buildings for treatment, individuals can also be referredby treatment staff or police informally or in lieu of arrest into the program. Additionally, civilian staff and police officers assist participants, rather than relying on volunteers. Tobetter reach to the people struggling with substance dependence,TheNew Castle County Police Department hired a civilian care coordinator to contact participants regarding treatment and the criminal justice system (direct needs), and other services such as housing, employment, mental health, and transportation (indirect needs). This person would also be responsible for conducting outreach and swiftly assisting non-fatal overdose victims, as well as training interested individuals in the safe use and storage of naloxone and providing a free kit. After hiring the coordinator, the police department initiated an extensive effort to advertise the Hero Help program to raise awareness in the community to potential clients, their families, and friends who might benefit from detox/treatment services.
The New Castle County Police Department contracted with the Center for Drug and Health Studies at the University of Delaware to conduct an evaluation of the impact of the Hero Help Coordinator. Researchers found that after the implementation of Hero Help, there has been an increase in walk-in participants in rehabilitation centers, which is thought to be the result of the growing awareness of the Hero Help program.
