Prevention and Behavioral Health Promotion

Texas' comprehensive prevention and behavioral health promotion approach includes both substance use and suicide prevention programs and services. There is a strong connection between the missions of substance use prevention and the suicide prevention community; prevention and treating substance use, prevents suicides. This alignment of services is designed to enhance our Prevention System to implement evidence-based programs, recognize signs of suicide risk, and work collectively toward prevention by promoting healthy individuals and healthy communities across Texas.

Prevention and Behavioral Health Promotion (PBHP) programs include promotion strategies that increase protective factors, are trauma informed, and align with best practices as outlined by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Spectrum of Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral interventions.

The substance use prevention programs are designed to address the needs of people who do not require treatment for a substance use disorder (SUD) but could benefit from preventive strategies, resources and support. Grantees providing substance use prevention services must follow Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Strategic Prevention Framework model as a guide to assist in planning and implementing prevention strategies, programs and related activities.

The suicide prevention programs and services work to provide compassionate support, education and resources to people and communities to prevent suicide in Texas and help communities heal after a suicide loss. Suicide prevention programs take a comprehensive approach to addressing suicide through prevention, intervention, and postvention efforts. For more information, visit the Suicide Prevention webpage or email Suicide Prevention for more information.

PBHP partners with schools, local mental health authorities, local government entities, community-based organizations, and institutions of higher education to prevent suicide in Texas and address the state's substance use priority goals: reducing underage alcohol use, commercial tobacco and nicotine products use, marijuana and other cannabinoid use, and prescription drug misuse, and the use and misuse of other substances.

The PBHP maintains the following programs and services:

• Community Coalition Partnerships engage and mobilize various sectors of the community to implement evidence-based environmental strategies with a primary focus on changing policies and influencing social norms related to substance use.
• The Innovative Healing Center Project (IHCP) and the Youth Expansion Strategy promotes resilience, social connection and healing for Texans who are at-risk for substance misuse. These projects address adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and emergent behavioral health needs that have been exacerbated due to COVID-19 among underserved and historically marginalized communities, as defined by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. IHCPs are funded throughout the state to provide non-clinical supportive services to people who have experienced ACEs or have emergent behavioral health needs exacerbated by COVID-19.
• Project Healing and Engaging After Loss (HEAL) is a partnership with select local mental health authorities in Texas that serve geographic areas with higher rates of suicide deaths to strengthen suicide prevention, intervention and postvention support and services to people, families and communities. The goals of Project HEAL are to improve transition plans for youth discharging from psychiatric facilities, increase capacity for local mental health authority staff to screen, assess, manage, and treat youth at risk for suicide, provide suicide community helper trainings to increase awareness and early identification and support for those at risk of suicide, establish Local Outreach to Survivors of Suicide teams in to provide immediate postvention support to those bereaved by suicide, and initiate and support partnerships with the local school districts, colleges, and universities to expand youth suicide prevention and postvention support.
• Prevention Resource Centers increase the capacity of the statewide PBHP system by enhancing community collaboration, increasing community awareness and readiness, providing information and resources on substance use and related behavioral health data, supporting professional development of the prevention workforce, and providing resources for evaluation activities within each service region. Prevention Resource Centers also support the federal Synar requirement through the Tobacco Compliance Program (TCP) by conducting voluntary tobacco retail compliance checks throughout the state to help reduce youth access to tobacco and other nicotine products.
• Texas Tobacco Enforcement Program (TEP) enforces Texas Tobacco Law. As part of TEP, the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University solicits local law enforcement agencies to submit applications for the purpose of conducting controlled buy or stings and follow-up controlled buy of tobacco permitted and e-cigarette retail outlets statewide. For more information on how to participate in this program visit  Texas State - Tobacco Enforcement Program. PBHP works alongside the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts to reduce youth and young adult access to commercial tobacco and e-cigarette products. For more information on reporting tobacco and/or e-cigarette violations, please visit How to Report Tobacco Law Violations. In addition, PBHP manages the Texas Tobacco Enforcement and Control Dashboard which details tobacco enforcement and compliance data collected from Synar, TEP, and TCP.
• The Suicide Care Initiative (SCI) has the goal of improving suicide care for Texans by implementing the Zero Suicide framework within the public mental health system. SCI provides funding to four local mental health authorities in the state that serve as Regional Suicide Care Support Centers (RSCSC). The RSCSCs provide technical assistance, supplies and training to the other local mental health authorities and local behavioral health authorities across the state to assist them with implementation of the Zero Suicide framework.
• Texas Prevention Training provides prevention and behavioral health promotion contractors with prevention-related training and technical -assistance services to support and enhance workforce development in Texas. Contractors can request training through their regional Prevention Resource Center, which will then coordinate their requests with the statewide training entity to deliver, develop and promote these requested trainings. For more information, visit Texas Prevention Training.
• The Turn To Media Campaign is a public health campaign delivering prevention and behavioral health promotion messages in English and Spanish through social media platforms, television, and radio public service announcements, print materials and other media. The campaign seeks to provide Texas youth, young adults and parents with resources to cope successfully with trauma, stress and anxiety escalated by COVID-19 and health disparities, and thereby reduce the rate of substance use disorders that typically rise under adverse circumstances. The campaign also informs Texas community leaders about the risk and protective factors that contribute to behavioral health issues so that these leaders can make decisions that best support their community’s wellness. For more information, visit Turn To.
• Youth Prevention Indicated programs address people because of initiative behaviors and related risk factors that place them at an elevated risk for substance use and misuse. While the target population might show early signs of substance use and misuse, indicated services are not designed for people with a diagnosable substance use disorder.
• Youth Prevention Selective programs address specific subgroups of the general population known to have risk factors that increase the likelihood of substance use and misuse.
• Youth Prevention Universal programs address the general public or subgroups with average probability of developing a substance use disorder, risk or condition.