2023 Policy Research's Year in Review

Big News in 2023

• Named the first-place small employer for the Times Union Top Workplace 2023 awards! It is our third time being named the first-place small employer. This award demonstrates the reciprocal commitment and care we have for our employees. In addition, we also received the "Doer" Award! The Doer Award is given to the company with the highest percentage of employees who agree with the statement, "At this company, we do things efficiently and well."
• Celebrated Policy Research's 35th anniversary by releasing a timeline documenting significant milestones over the past three and a half decades. The timeline highlights the start of our cornerstone projects, leadership transitions, select publications, and other notable facts to mark the evolution of our work.
• Modified the Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) to include 988. This amendment highlights the shift communities are making to provide behavioral health services for people in crisis when a law enforcement response is not necessary.
• Moved our headquarters from Delmar, New York, to a coworking space at the Hedley Building in Troy, New York. Our new coworking space aligns with our remote-first strategy and allows us to accommodate in-person groups, both large and small.
• Produced the Data Points podcast series and released four episodes on topics that discuss frequent jail contact, suicide prevention, pretrial risk assessments, and money bail. Data Points translates research produced by Policy Research into key takeaways that you can use to enhance your work and advance positive social change. Listen today!
• Soft-launched the Systems Mapping and Training Center, an initiative of Policy Research. The Systems Mapping and Training Center provides mapping and training services to decision-makers across systems, including behavioral health, the criminal legal system, homelessness, and service members, Veterans, and their families.
• Strengthened our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts through an evaluation of our DEI work to see what is working and what needs improvement. We also expanded our DEI efforts to our partnerships and business relationships to ensure that we work with and support organizations that align with our values.
• Commemorated the first anniversary of Sarah Desmarais's tenure as president of Policy Research. Dr. Desmarais shared reflections on her first year as president in an episode of Conversations on Leadership, a Policy Research podcast series. In the episode, she shares how Policy Research's strategic plan guides her work, explores the expansion of the firm's research portfolio, and shares what's next for her and the firm.

Criminal Legal System

• Policy Research worked with project partners to design, develop, and release the Bureau of Justice Assistance's Crisis Response Intervention Training (CRIT) to the field with an accompanying toolkit. CRIT is a 40-hour training program designed to prepare police officers in their response to people experiencing crises related to behavioral health conditions and intellectual and developmental disabilities.
• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration's (SAMHSA) GAINS Center delivered its first-ever SIM Mapping Workshop entirely in Spanish to a team of criminal legal and behavioral health professionals in Puerto Rico, followed by a presentation and report in October on the findings of the June SIM Mapping Workshop at the island-wide Justice and Mental Health Summit.
• SAMHSA's GAINS Center hosted two national Policy Academies, assisting five state teams with site visits, presentations, panels of subject-matter experts, strategic planning, and technical assistance (TA). The GAINS Center convened teams from Alabama, the District of Columbia, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Texas on competence to stand trial and competence restoration in April, as well as teams from Arizona, Michigan, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Washington on advancing medication for opioid use disorders in state prisons in August.
• Policy Research provided TA to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) through the IMPACT Network, a behavioral health-focused cohort of 17 sites.
• Staff facilitated 26 SIM Mapping Workshops, 5 SIM Summits, 5 SIM facilitator trainings, and 16 How Being Trauma-Informed Improves Criminal Justice System Responses train-the-trainer events that reached approximately 350 people. Four SIM Mapping Workshops were completed with Sullivan, Genesee, Greene, and Delaware counties—selected sites from the New York State Office of Court Administration Rural Opioid Intervention Court project. In addition, SAMHSA's GAINS Center hosted 15 webinars with 15,845 registrants and 6,348 attendees.

Housing and Income Supports

• The Supplemental Security Income (SSI)/Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) Technical Assistance Center reported 2,604 approvals on initial applications, with decisions averaging 167 days and a 67 percent allowance rate, compared to the initial allowance rate of 30 percent for all persons aged 18 to 64 who applied for SSI or SSDI in 2021. Since its inception, SOAR providers have assisted 105,013 people with their SSI and SSDI applications.
• The SOAR Online Course: Adult Curriculum celebrated 9 years with 16,490 successful course completions, and the SOAR Online Course: Child Curriculum celebrated 5 years with 699 successful course completions. Staff reviewed 3,556 practice case application packets from the SOAR Online Courses: Adult and Child Curricula with 2,060 successful course completions to date.
• The Homeless and Housing Resource Center (HHRC) launched two new online courses, Trauma-Informed Outreach and Engagement and Supporting People Who Use Methamphetamine. HHRC now has 6 online courses, with a combined registration of over 10,000 trainees and 4,808 course completions.
• HHRC was awarded supplemental funds to support the White House Domestic Policy Council and U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) All Inside initiative. HHRC will provide SAMHSA-funded TA to seven communities across the country as they work to reduce unsheltered homelessness. HHRC will also provide SAMHSA-funded TA to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Rural and Unsheltered Homelessness grantees.
• Policy Research resumed work and reopened the PATH Data Exchange (PDX) website. The website supports PATH grantees in submitting their annual data reports to SAMHSA.

Research and Evaluation

• The Research and Evaluation team has wrapped up several projects, such as the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Safety and Justice Challenge-funded multisite evaluation of programs to reduce criminal legal system involvement for people who come into frequent contact with the system. As part of this project, staff detailed findings in various products, including a final report, a fact sheet, graphic notes, a podcast, and a webinar. More than 75 people attended the webinar.
• Several ongoing projects received additional years of funding, including an Americorps-funded project seeking to understand the well-being and development of young social change agents, a State Justice Institute-funded project seeking to explore court-located systems of non-legal aid providing assistance to those moving through criminal and civil court processes, and an Office of National Drug Control Policy-funded project supporting qualitative data analysis on local drug policy evaluation.
• Policy Research submitted several grants, including “Behavioral Health Partnership for Early Diversion of Adults and Youth” to SAMHSA (funded).
• To support the new work, the Research and Evaluation Area has added a project manager and two new research assistants to strengthen its data analysis and data management capacities.

Service Members, Veterans, and their Families

• The Service Members, Veterans, and their Families (SMVF) TA Center hosted two Implementation Academies, one Policy Academy, and one two-track Innovations Conference as part of the TA Center’s U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs/SAMHSA's Governor's and Mayor's Challenges to Prevent Suicide Among SMVF (Governor’s and Mayor’s Challenge) work. The meetings provided opportunities for engagement with subject-matter experts and collaboration across state/territory teams to support SMVF suicide prevention planning and implementation.
• Three new states and territories were welcomed to the Governor’s Challenge. The SMVF TA Center worked with each state to form interagency, military, and civilian state teams. The TA Center worked with the VA and SAMHSA to identify each team’s suicide prevention action plan priority areas, including screening and assessment, promoting connectedness, and lethal means safety.
• The SMVF TA Center conducted a Suicide Mortality Review (SMR) Academy, bringing together five state and two community teams committed to implementing or enhancing SMR committees to inform suicide prevention efforts.
• The SMVF TA Center convened a panel of 10 American Indian/Alaska Native subject-matter experts for one in-person and two virtual listening sessions. Representatives included 12 Tribal Nations, the federal government, and PsychArmor. Two working groups were established at the in-person convening—one to discuss the outline and next steps for developing an educational tool and one to examine the creation of a culturally aligned suicide prevention initiative for Tribal Nations.
• The SMVF TA Center engaged 18 new communities in SMVF Crisis Intercept Mapping for Suicide Prevention workshops and reengaged 12 communities to further strategic planning efforts. Participating communities created local crisis system maps and action plans for suicide prevention within the crisis care continuum.