NPC News 
A quarterly update
from NPC Research
Volume 3, Issue 3 
In This Issue
Zero Suicide Model
Assisting Tribes to Improve Wellness and Safety
Research On Careers in the Arts
Featured Top 10 Drug Court Best Practice

Zero Suicide Model Examined in Three Studies

NPC is excited to be the local evaluator for three Garrett Lee Smith Youth Suicide Prevention projects in the Pacific Northwest. These innovative programs have at their core the principle of "Zero Suicide." The model was developed to fill gaps that many suicidal people face within healthcare systems by providing a step-by-step implementation process for healthcare (and partner) systems to address suicide through screening, assessment, and treatment.

One key point of focus in Zero Suicide is providing good care transitions through continuous contact and support, especially after acute care -- that is, intervention for someone who is imminently suicidal or who has just made a suicide attempt. Another integral part of the Zero Suicide is the continuous evaluation of efforts and tireless work to perfect each piece of the system so that no one falls through the cracks and people get the care that is indicated by research as best practice. Healthcare systems that have adopted Zero Suicide have seen an 80% drop in member suicide rates.  

Read more and get the toolkit here.

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Goals of Project to Assist Tribes Include Improving Wellness and Safety

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs received a planning grant to increase the Tribal justice system's coordination, efficiencies, effectiveness, and ultimately improve community wellness and safety. In early 2014, NPC Research was selected as the facilitator and evaluator of this 2-year process. The main areas that the grant is meant to tackle include improving coordination between Tribal justice departments, maximizing program resources through shared functions, increasing capacities to carry out effective fundraising, and creating a vision and plan for the future. 

The Tribal departments involved in this planning process include the Tribal courts, prosecution, legal aid, Tribal Council, law enforcement, probation, behavioral health, social services/child welfare, and several others partners. 

The main tasks for NPC throughout this process have been to work with the core team to identify areas of the justice system that need improvement, prioritize the needs, create a plan to accelerate the pace of positive change, and document the process. NPC has facilitated several planning conferences where plans are examined, barriers discussed, solutions identified, and departmental collaboration and coordination improved.

Juliette Mackin and Jade Croome, the NPC staff on this project, are excited to help the Tribes integrate many parts of their work into a larger effort, and create a healthier and safer community. Pictured below, from left: John Webb, Tribal Truancy Officer; Ken Kippley, Tribal Truancy Officer; Jade Croome; Nancy Seyler, Chief Tribal Prosecutor; Juliette Mackin; and Bernaidine Jackson, Assistant Juvenile Prosecutor.


NPC Studies Programs to Connect Under-served Students to Careers in the Arts

Connecting Students to the World of Work (WoW) grants support projects that draw connections for underserved students to the world of work by offering engagement in the professional elements of an artistic/creative career field. WoW grants, funded by the Oregon Arts Commission (OAC), are included in an umbrella of State education funding designed to further Oregon's 40-40-20 Goal: By the year 2025, the goal is for 20% to finish their education at high school or equivalent, 40% to reach a post-secondary credential, and 40% to reach a bachelor's degree or higher. As such, the OAC's WoW programs aim to connect students to professional arts work, build their skills, and foster an awareness of and motivation for college and career aspirations. Since January 2014, the OAC has funded 11 organizations, each with a unique WoW program. 

The OAC simultaneously contracted with NPC Research (who partnered with CRSmith Consulting) to perform evaluation-related activities relative to the WoW grants. Specifically, this included: (1) the design and implementation of a cross-site evaluation of all programs, for which NPC developed and implemented standardized measures and data collection protocols (data collection is ongoing), and (2) the provision of individualized evaluation-related technical assistance to each grantee organization.

NPC's technical assistance to WoW grantees aimed to meet their individual needs and help build their internal evaluation capacity. This consultation included developing a program logic model, clarifying program outcomes and identifying appropriate means of measuring them, establishing data collection and management protocols, and planning ways to meaningfully use the data they collected. A series of Evaluation Mini-Guides, brief overviews of fundamental evaluation principles, was developed as part of this work. These guides are posted on NPC's website here.

Featured Top 10 Drug Court Best Practice: Drug Courts that Require Greater than 90 Days Clean Show Reduced Recidivism
In this ongoing column, we present the Top 10 drug court best practices, one practice at a time, with a brief discussion of each practice. In this issue, we present the #2 practice in the Top 10 best practices for reducing recidivism. See the full publication on best practices.

Drug courts where participants were expected to have greater than 90 days clean (confirmed by negative drug tests) before graduation had more than 2½ times greater reductions in recidivism compared with programs that expected less clean time.

Graduation requirements are an important issue, and have been a contentious one for some drug courts. This finding is consistent with the literature, which shows that the longer individuals remain abstinent from drugs and alcohol, the more likely they will continue to remain abstinent in the future.