{"id":107,"date":"2024-11-25T01:49:03","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T01:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/injurycenter.umich.edu\/sos-toolkit-genesee\/?page_id=107"},"modified":"2024-12-16T17:21:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T17:21:04","slug":"public-health-response","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/injurycenter.umich.edu\/sos-toolkit-genesee\/public-health-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Health Response"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This section of the toolkit was developed using information gathered through interviews and focus groups with public health stakeholders, who represent those working to impact health at the community level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below you will find promising overdose response strategies identified by public health stakeholders in Genesee County. Each promising strategy is numbered, along with stakeholder identified barriers to accomplishing the proposed strategy, and how the System for Opioid Overdose Surveillance (SOS) may assist stakeholders\u2019 ability to accomplish each promising strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nImpacts of Covid-19 on Public Health Response<\/span><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/a>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

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Promising Strategy 1: Directing Prevention and Response<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Public health stakeholders in Genesee County act as a neutral convener to bring together a wide group of community-based organizations and volunteers. These partnerships are vital to their functioning, operating as \u201cboots-on-the-ground\u201d individuals and groups working to distribute naloxone, engage with the community as peer recovery coaches and distribute educational materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An important component of overdose response and prevention work for public health stakeholders and their community is the identification of locations that are in the greatest need of overdose prevention and response. Through combined targeted response and partner engagement, overdose prevention and response can more effectively be tailored to each unique location requiring additional support. One public health stakeholder states, \u201cThe ability to look at zip code data is really important.  That\u2019s something that we utilize a lot for various programs, and I think, at least in our community, we know that there are specific zip codes that may be more problematic than others just based on various factors.\u201d <\/em>This stakeholder expresses the importance of access to location-specific overdose data and how the sharing of the data can help them bolster connections between themselves and their partner programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barriers to Directing Prevention and Response<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Public health stakeholders in Genesee County express the need for more timely data in order to target their response effectively. The ability to access timely death from overdose rates or toxicology reports is often nonexistent. These data sources take extended amounts of time to populate and are not particularly useful for timely overdose response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Near Real-time Data Impact on Directing Prevention and Response<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Currently the SOS dashboard and reports are being used by public health stakeholders to keep them informed on the extent of suspected opioid overdoses in the community and to direct their \u201cboots-on-the-ground\u201d partners to locations in greater need of response or support. Stakeholders described several ways that the SOS data has proven to be valuable:<\/p>\n\n\n\n