Oklahoma Prevention Needs Assessment (OPNA)

The Oklahoma Prevention Needs Assessment Survey (OPNA) is a biennial survey of public, private, and charter school students in the 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grades. The survey is a project of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS), and has been conducted in Oklahoma since 2004. To increase in-state prevention efforts and collaboration, ODMHSAS has partnered with the OSU Center for Family Resilience, the OSU National Center for Wellness and Recovery, and the OSU Center for Rural Health to facilitate the OPNA survey administration for the 2021-2022 school year.

The OPNA is a robust tool for providing direction to schools, districts, and communities to effectively improve the lives of students across a variety of issues: alcohol, tobacco, other drug use, mental illness, academic failure, and violence. The survey results provide the necessary  information to plan important prevention and intervention strategies. It will also help schools, districts, and counties judge the effectiveness of current prevention and intervention efforts. The information gained from these surveys will allow school districts and the State of Oklahoma to continue to provide comprehensive prevention programs for our schools and children. The focus of the OPNA is on health risk behaviors such as violence and alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use that can result in injury and/or impede positive development among our youth. The survey also includes risk and protective factors, which are attitudes, behaviors, and opinions that research has shown to be highly correlated with these health risk behaviors.