Regional networks can leverage the strengths of diverse organizations to address behavioral health service shortages. This presentation will overview a year-long translatable process for building and sustaining such networks, including a case example in which this approach was sequentially implemented across three different rural regions of Colorado to address nicotine use.
The Regional Networks for Comprehensive Tobacco Treatment (RNCTT) leveraged the Performance Partnership Model (PPM) to engage leaders from different communities in directed, collaborative goal setting. The RNCTT focused on pursuing what communities can accomplish innovatively and rapidly, using their existing infrastructure and no additional funding. Each year, the RNCTT convened a new regional network in a rural part of Colorado which included public health organizations, health care providers, hospitals, community-based organizations, school districts, and more. Networks collectively identified goals to address nicotine use at the regional level, while also pursuing supportive organizational-level goals.
Each regional network was launched by an in-person Action Forum. During this event, didactic, regional information related to nicotine was relayed. Project facilitators led the organizations in network building and goal setting activities. Throughout the project year, organizations met regularly to share updates, successes, and challenges. They also received tailored technical assistance that supported goal achievement and free access to evidence-based trainings designed to increase knowledge and capacity to treat nicotine use. Each project year culminated in an in-person Sustainability Meeting at which project facilitators supported the creation of a sustainability plan to guide future progress and strategically relinquished leadership to the network itself. The RNCTT project empowered three rural regions in Colorado to develop new regional connections and enhanced their capacity to address nicotine use. Thus, the RNCTT project demonstrates the potential for diverse organizations in a region to convene and collaborate to leverage their respective specialties to collectively address public health concerns.
