Opioid Mapping Initiative

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Opioid Mapping Initiative. Overview and outline for local governments to get started. Background. Cities, Counties and State agencies are all being impacted by ...
Opioid Mapping Initiative Overview and outline for local governments to get started

Background Cities, Counties and State agencies are all being impacted by the Opioid Epidemic. Elected Officials want to better understand how it impacts their community. First Responders from fire and police are faced with an increased burden of responding to overdoses. Health Departments are working with the community to help address the epidemic. To resolve all the above, an understanding within the community is critical and local governments are turning to maps to do it. What it is The Opioid Mapping Initiative is a community of practice that includes leading city and county government health and law enforcement agencies, technologists, and researchers committed to engaging their communities in partnerships to improve awareness of the opioid epidemic and make better decisions with government resources. The purpose of the initiative and this site is to provide example applications and open data sets that local health and law enforcement agencies have identified as important to their communities. It also provides critical and timely resources, including: technical guidance and best practices, success stories; how-to articles; and links to related efforts.

What has been the result so far? Communities are sharing their work via monthly webcast in an open setting, discussing what is working, challenges and best practices. This collaboration across agencies has led to sharing of ideas , including one agency replicating another’s work. When possible, these examples gets posted on the main website, but more valuable through the one on one interaction through the webcasts. Most entities share simple community resources maps, such as where to obtain Naloxone and Permanent Prescription Drop Off Locations. These datasets, which were populated by the efforts of many, have led to the creation of national maps for Naloxone Access and Prescription Drop Offs. Sharing methods for additional datasets is also being evaluated.

Who is involved? Most participating governments have at least a couple of contact people. Often times it may be a specialist such as an epidemiologist from the health department or individual from the fire department. They will often-times be paired up with a technologist. Any individual interested can participate that is helping fight the epidemic and has a hand in helping their community. How does a Government get started? The first step in understanding your community is to start visualizing the data. Depending on whether you are City or County you may have different datasets available to you or you may need intergovernmental agreements. Participants in the Opioid Mapping Initiative have begun to map several datasets; below is a listing of the most common, and typical sources of data. •





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Deaths o Death data is typically obtained from one of two places. 1) From your State Health Department of Vital Statistics and can be a year end-result for your community. Many states have rules about how generalization needed to present this to the public. 2) More communities such as Cook County are obtaining data directly from their Medical Examiner or Coroner (typically a County function). This allows for much more timely information as deaths occur. Overdoses o Records Management System (RMS) at either a City or County will typically show this information. Since it is becoming such an issue, many first responders tag incidents specifically as overdose. Naloxone Deployments o RMS and first responders are also starting to keep track of Naloxone Deployments. While Naloxone is being deployed more readily to rule out all causes and may not be overdose related, understanding where government resources are going and probability helps visualize trends. Hospitalizations o State Hospital Associations typically have data on where admissions are occurring. Permanent Drop Box Locations o This is perhaps one of the easiest datasets to map. With it, you can start associating the weight collected to see if prevention efforts are working. Treatment Facilities o Often families do not know where to turn and local efforts to provide this information is critical. Initial data can be obtained from SAMHSA. This landscape changes quickly and can be added by your local health department. Alternative Pain Management o Health Departments are taking the charge to promote complimentary pain management such as acupuncture, chiropractic and massage. This can be an effort to go aside economic development as well to help minimize the likelihood of addiction starting. Recovery Resources o Post treatment resources such as Narcotics Anonymous or other resources are valuable in helping individuals in their success.



Naloxone Access o Many health departments are taking inventory of local pharmacies and clinics that provide naloxone, as when they do naloxone trainings are often asked next where to obtain it. Once these core datasets above can be obtained, communities can start approaching data in new ways such as looking at opioids in wastewater. In addition, communities can be proactive and create new ways of engagement such as interacting with employers who are willing to hire people who just finish treatment, map it and promote with economic development to drive immediate change. Not all of the above datasets are needed to participate in the Initiative, but should provide a guide point for an inventory for communities to aim towards obtaining.

Technology Honestly the hardest part is getting access to the data above and agreements to share, the technology is the easiest part. Once ready, there are several Solution configurations to help you get started in visualizing the data above.