Reducing the Impact of Substance Abuse and Mental Illness On America's Youth

Background:  The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) Reducing the Impact exhibit created for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA’s) Target America traveling museum educates youth about the prevention of underage drinking, prescription drug abuse and illicit drug use, suicide, and the promotion of mental health. Through dynamic visual displays and digital touchscreen activities and media, Reducing the Impactprovides youth with a fully interactive educational experience. Through QR codes, quizzes, surveys, videos, guided ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ scenarios, and creative writing applications, youth engage proactively with key facts and compelling statistics about these important issues, and learn ways that they can prevent substance abuse in their own lives and communities.

Program background:  Since 2002, SAMHSA has supported a portion of the DEA’s Target America traveling museum that focuses on the prevention of substance abuse, particularly among youth.With the museum’s transition to Tampa, Florida, SAMHSA wanted to refresh its exhibit by updating the technology and visual display, and showcasing new behavioral health data, resources and programs developed by SAMHSA and its partners that are available to youth and their families.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Methods: To ensure Reducing the Impactengaged the target audience of students, aged 9 to 15-years-old, SAMHSA:

• Identified core objectives: SAMHSA developed learning objectives for each of the exhibit’s four primary topic areas to guide the development of the static panels and interactive features.
• Conducted research: SAMHSA selected content and statistics from its National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), Federal resources, and carefully vetted Web sites.
• Explored interactive options: SAMHSA worked with experts in interactive media development, traditional, and digital mediums to identify what would best showcase behavioral health data in a compelling way to guarantee the most audience engagement.
• Developed creative assets: Working with these experts, SAMHSA created elements to use throughout the static display and interactive components, and solicited feedback from the target audience to fine-tune creative decisions.
• Launched the exhibit: Reducing the Impact launched in September 2011.

Results: SAMHSA unveiled Reducing the Impact in September 2011 at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Tampa, Florida, and through February 2012, 193,864 people have visited the Target America exhibit. Attendance is projected to surpass 500,000 by the end of the year. The high visitor volume has allowed the messaging and interactive activities within SAMHSA’s Reducing the Impact exhibit to reach youth on a large scale. Additionally, a modified version of the exhibit displayed at SAMHSA’s Prevention Day in February 2012 was well-received by prevention service providers, as evidenced by numerous requests to obtain and use the content in the field.

Conclusions:  Reducing the Impact has successfully engaged youth using technology that interests them, thereby imparting important educational messages and prevention resources. SAMHSA adapted statistical data to create content that communicated the importance of substance abuse and suicide prevention, and used multiple communications channels to ensure that people could interact with the exhibit in different ways.

Implications for research and/or practice: The development and evolution of this exhibit serves as a model for other organizations seeking innovative approaches to bringing statistics to life.