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Strategy to Coordinate Opioid Overdose Prevention Initiatives Paying Dividends
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh set out to demonstrate that initiatives to reduce opioid overdose deaths could deliver a greater impact by working together through community-focused collaboration strategies.
A newly published study shows their work is paying dividends.
The monthly opioid overdose death rate in Pennsylvania counties that implemented the Pennsylvania Opioid Overdose Reduction Technical Assistance Center (ORTAC) strategy decreased by 30%, with projections showing more than 1800 overdoses were prevented over a 2-year period, according to a study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
“ORTAC aims to bring efforts together, pool resources and integrate services to reduce opioid-related overdose deaths at a community level,” study senior author Janice Pringle, PhD, professor of pharmacy and therapeutics and director of the Program Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU) at the Pitt School of Pharmacy, said in a news release.
“If the opioid crisis is a tree, 1000 steak knives is not going to chop it down. We need 67 hands—1 for each county in Pennsylvania—on the chainsaw.”
Pringle and her cohorts at Pitt created an 8-step framework to boost community coalitions and help to plan, implement, and sustain efforts to decrease opioid supply and demand and reduce opioid-related risks in their counties.
The initiative included participation from multiple sectors, including: first responders and emergency departments, drug and alcohol treatment programs, mental health providers, and the criminal justice system. Data was reviewed to better understand participating communities’ unique needs. Based on those findings, coordinated interventions were developed to improve access to treatment programs, educate first responders in leave-behind practices for naloxone, implement harm reduction strategies, and develop campaigns to address substance use-related stigma.
Accounting for factors that could affect opioid-involved deaths, including county distribution of naloxone outside of ORTAC’s initiatives, illicit drug supply, and opioid prescriptions, researchers found counties participating in the ORTAC initiative reported between 1.5 and 3.8 fewer opioid overdose deaths per 100,000 people in the first 2 years after the program began.
“If you fund communities and provide structured support, you can make transformational change beyond what might be possible with a top-down approach,” lead author Renee Cloutier, PhD, research scientist in the Pitt School of Pharmacy’s Department of Pharmacy and Therapeutics and scientific director of PERU, said in the release “We hope to see more funding targeted toward supporting communities on the ground in this way.”
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