Building a stronger behavioral health system for Ohio

The Ohio Education Research Center (OERC) in the John Glenn College of Public Affairs and the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University have partnered with the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health to support the state’s behavioral health professionals in selecting and delivering prevention and early intervention strategies that are backed by research.

The resulting online Ohio Registry for Prevention and Early Intervention Programs serves as a centralized, publicly accessible resource to guide state and local decision-makers, providers and communities in selecting programs that best fit community needs and meet evidence standards. Programs and strategies in the registry have been shown to produce positive outcomes.

“In addition to the registry being an outlet for informing the field about the evidence that exists around nationally recognized programs, a core part of this work is evaluating home-grown programs in Ohio so they can be elevated and included in the registry,” said Jessica Collura, an OERC senior research associate who is leading the project.

The registry is part of Ohio’s work to build a stronger behavioral health system through better data, stronger accountability and wider access to programs with proven outcomes. The Ohio Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) has provided OERC and the College of Social Work with over $1 million to develop and maintain the registry and offer capacity building opportunities to the broader behavioral health field.

“By helping communities identify programs that work, we can support individuals and families earlier — often preventing more serious behavioral health needs down the road,” said DBH Director Tia Marcel Moretti. “At its core, the registry is about ensuring Ohioans have access to effective prevention and early intervention services.

“The Ohio Registry provides a consistent, evidence-based way to identify prevention and early intervention programs that are proven to make a difference,” said Moretti. “By highlighting programs with strong outcomes, it strengthens our behavioral health system, supports quality improvement and encourages continued innovation across the state.”

The registry can help prevention and early intervention professionals by making it easier to identify programs that fit the needs of the communities they serve and to make informed decisions about the approaches they use, said Cindy Clouner, managing director of the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Misuse Prevention and Recovery, an academic center housed within the College of Social Work.

“Having a centralized resource also helps connect practice with evidence and supports thoughtful program selection and implementation,” said Clouner, who is co-principal investigator of the project with Collura.

The registry will help bridge the gap between academic research and community practice, said Glenn College Assistant Professor Tasha Perdue, an expert in drug, criminal justice and public health policy who serves on the registry project’s advisory committee.

It provides researchers with access to evidence-supported interventions that can inform studies and grant proposals; allows them to explore existing interventions to identify gaps in evidence-based programming for specific populations, communities or service needs; and helps researchers developing interventions engage in a review process to have their work assessed for inclusion in the registry, she said.

“Understanding evidence-based programming is important because it helps us distinguish effective practice from practice that may be ineffective or even harmful,” Perdue said. “From a policy perspective, implementing evidence-based approaches is especially critical for ensuring that limited time and resources are used effectively, which is particularly important for nonprofits and other providers. The use of evidence to guide decision-making and track outcomes can also provide greater transparency and accountability while ensuring that interventions align with established guidelines and best practices.”