Step 10 Plan for Sustaining Effective SAPA

Why

• If the original problem still exists, and your SAPA shows that it achieves your desired outcomes, then there is still a need for it to continue.
• By sustaining your SAPA, your site and its service members will continue to benefit from your initial investment in starting the prevention activity using GTO.
• Sustaining effective SAPA is more cost-efficient than starting over with a new one.

How

• A sustainability review includes updating your Step 6 work plan and SAPA Overview based on your evaluation review and CQI process and conclusions.
• Several additional tasks that impact ability to sustain a SAPA include:
  • knowing and communicating the evaluation result(s) that justifies continuing your SAPA
  • maintaining or finding a new champion for your SAPA, as well as leadership support
  • enlisting staff for your next round of implementation and considering how to onboard new staff
  • centrally locating all current documents and other materials for ongoing use by involved staff.
• The longer GTO guide has a tool—Sustainability Review Tool—that could help you complete this step. You can download a .zip file that contains all of the tools.

Key Points

• Step 10 applies only when you have decided to continue using the SAPA that you have been using, after concluding through CQI that it is effective.
• Because staff turnover is a reality, systematic transition plans to bring new staff on board and provide them with the training for your SAPA can ease the turnover burden on remaining staff. Can the SAPA be made a permanent duty of a certain position?
• Personnel assigned and accountable for implementation, training for new personnel, and direct oversight are keys to sustaining effective prevention activities.
• GTO Step 10 aligns with the continuous evaluation step in the PPoA prevention process.