SAMHSA Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF)

Prevention planners are pressed to put in place solutions to urgent substance use problems facing their communities. But research and experience have shown that prevention must begin with an understanding of these complex behavioral health problems within their complex environmental contexts; only then can communities establish and implement effective plans to address substance misuse.

To facilitate this understanding, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association (SAMHSA) developed the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) The five steps and two guiding principles of the SPF offer prevention planners a comprehensive approach to understanding and addressing the substance use and related behavioral health problems facing their states and communities.

The SPF includes five steps:

  • Identify local prevention needs based on data (e.g., What is the problem?)

  • Find out what works to address prevention needs and how to do it well (e.g., What should you do and how should you do it?)

  • Build local resources and readiness to address prevention needs (e.g., What should you do and how should you do it?)

  • Deliver evidence-based programs and practices as intended (e.g., How can you put your plan into action?)

  • Examine the process and outcomes of programs and practices (e.g., Is your plan succeeding?)

The SPF is also guided by two cross-cutting principles that should be integrated into each of the steps that comprise it:

Cultural Competence

The ability of an individual or organization to understand and interact effectively with people who have different values, lifestyles, and traditions based on their distinctive heritage and social relationships.

Sustainability

The process of building and adaptive and effective system that achieves and maintains desired long term results.

The SPF has several defining characteristics that set it apart from other strategic planning processes. Notably, it is:

Dynamic and Iterative

Assessment is the starting point, but planners will return to this step again and again as their community’s substance use problems and capacities evolve. Communities may also engage in activities related to multiple steps simultaneously. For these reasons, the SPF is a circular rather than a linear model.

Data-Driven

The SPF is designed to help planners gather and use data to guide all prevention decisions including identifying which substance use issues to address in their communities, choosing the most appropriate ways to address those issues, and determining whether communities are making progress

Reliant on and encourages a team approach.

Each step of the SPF requires and greatly benefits from the participation of diverse community partners. The individuals and institutions involved in prevention efforts may change as the initiative evolves, but the need for prevention partners will remain constant.