The Colorado SEOW has a new website (www.coloradoseow.org) containing information on the SEOW goals, workgroups, publications, and meeting information.

The SEOW will meet every other month for a total of six meetings per year. Due to COVID-19, the SEOW will conduct meetings virtually until further notice. Three of the SEOW meetings will feature data presentations on new data sources or products. At the other three meetings, each member will share data on a specific topic.

For the November meeting we will discuss how COVID-19 has impacted substance use data. We are also going to discuss how data has been used and analyzed to investigate the impacts of COVID-19.

The SEOW hopes providing members opportunities to share their data will support better products, increase member engagement, and encourage learning and networking. If you are interested in presenting or have an idea for a data topic, please contact us.

Steering Committee (SC) Update:
The SC creates agendas, discusses strategic direction, and reviews progress on the SEOW’s goals.

The SC is in the process of evaluating the work of the SEOW and will soon send out surveys to our members to help with our evaluation. Be on the lookout for the surveys!

The SC will also be adding QR codes to all of our publications so that you may give feedback on the products and let us know if they were useful to you and what we can do to improve.

Alcohol Policy Workgroup Update:
This workgroup was formed to research evidence-based policies to reduce excessive drinking in Colorado. Julia Stullken, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiology (CSTE)  fellow has joined the workgroup through the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. She will serve as the fellow for the next two years and has begun her work helping us with alcohol policy issues. This workgroup will meet quarterly, for more information regarding this workgroup, please contact Kacy Crawford, alcohol epidemiologist at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Data Brief Workgroup Update:
This workgroup was recently formed to develop short, topical briefs on issues and events that are timely and relevant to policy makers and substance use professionals in Colorado. The workgroup aims to produce three topical briefs each year.

The workgroup recently published two topical briefs including the Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders Brief and the Alcohol Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic Brief. To access these most recent briefs and previous briefs, click here.

Epi Profile Workgroup Update:

In 2018 the Colorado SEOW collaborated with The Evaluation Center and Zeto Creative to produce the SEOW’s first state epidemiological substance use profiles. The SEOW focused on alcohol, marijuana, and opioids. The profiles were short, highly visual, and easily interpretable to a wide audience.

The SEOW plans to continue publishing this product biennially. Currently the SEOW is working on the 2020 profiles and plans to have them published by December of 2020.

You can find the previous profiles, here.

If you would like to join this group and work on the profiles please contact Haley Sammen.

Training Workgroup Update:
This workgroup was formed to address data access and usage needs identified by local public health departments. The group developed a data literacy manual to build the capacity of local public health professionals to find, request, and assess the quality of secondary data. The contents of the manual are being transformed into online learning modules through support from the Rocky Mountain Public Health Training Center.

The online modules and accompanying PDFs will be completed and accessible by the end of the year.

If you have any question or would like to join this workgroup contact Aracely Navarro.

Prescription Drug Workgroup Update:
The prescription drug workgroup is a new group formed to address prescription drug use and data needs. Tyler Payne is the chair of this group and is recruiting local people for a co-chair position, if you are interested in the co-chair position please contact Tyler Payne.

The workgroup will also be presenting at the Consortium Virtual Annual Meeting, where they will present data and discuss their recent integration into the SEOW. For details on registering for the conference please see below.