The role of substance use and mental health in adverse health outcomes is a recognized problem. The Substance Use and Mental Health (SUMH) Subcommittee was developed to concentrate CSTE’s efforts to comprehensively address state and local public health needs and interest in the epidemiology and surveillance of alcohol, opioids, other drugs, and mental health issues. Priorities focus on assessing and building public health agency epidemiologic capacity for substance use and mental health, development and enhancement of relevant indicators for surveillance of these topics and coordinating related activities across CSTE and with public health partners. The CSTE SUMH Subcommittee supports several related subcommittees focused on different activities: 

• Alcohol
• Cannabis
• Overdose
• Prescription Drug Monitoring Program

CSTE received initial support to develop public health surveillance activities for substance use and mental health via a previous partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). ).  Additionally, CSTE partnered with the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) to provide additional support for jurisdictions operating programs for drug overdose surveillance . See below helpful links and resources for more information on CSTE Substance Use and Mental Health Portfolio. 

For more information on CSTE's Substance Use and Mental Health portfolio, visit the CSTE Substance Use and Injury Connection Archives. 

Related CSTE Websites:

Resources

• In 2019, the SUMH Subcommittee convened a multistakeholder group to develop standardized public health surveillance case definition for nonfatal opioid overdoses. The resulting position statement was ratified by the Council in June 2019, 19-CC-01 Nonfatal Opioid Overdose Standardized Surveillance Case Definition
  
  
• 2019 CSTE Nonfatal Opioid Overdose Position Statement Implementation Guide 

• CSTE EMS Nonfatal Opioid Overdose Standard Guidance

• CSTE Recommendations for the Use of EMS Data to Identify Nonfatal Opioid Overdose

• Drug Overdose Anomaly Alert Toolkit

• ICD-10-CM Injury Surveillance Toolkit
  

• Injury Data Linkage Toolkit

• Recommended CSTE Surveillance Indicators for Substance Abuse and Mental Health

 Webinars/CSTE Learn/Publications

• Dashboards: Topics in Design Evaluation and Maintenance for effective insights of drug overdose surveillance

• Local and Territorial Learning Series for Opioid Surveillance
  

• Creating an Action Plan for Opioid Surveillance

• Development of Indicators for Public Health Surveillance of Substance Use and Mental Health

• Evaluating Behavioral Health Surveillance Systems

• Public Health Surveillance and the Opioid Crisis