Overdose Prevention
As the leading membership organization representing local health departments (LHDs), NACCHO recognizes that people who use drugs deserve dignity, care, and the right to make informed choices about their health and well-being. We understand that drug overdose represents a significant public health concern requiring compassionate, community-centered responses. NACCHO supports local health departments in developing evidence-based policies and programs that prioritize the health and safety of people who use drugs, reduce health disparities, and strengthen community partnerships to address the complex factors contributing to overdose and related health outcomes.
Six Years of Partnership: Transforming Overdose Prevention at the Local Level
Through our partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NACCHO's Overdose Prevention Team has worked with over 160 communities around the country investing more than $36 million in funding at the local level. Our flagship program, Implementing Overdose Prevention Strategies at the Local Level (IOPSLL), ran for 5 years from 2019 to 2024, providing over $20 million through 47 grants to 45 local health departments in areas with high rates of overdose deaths.
IOPSLL represented a gold standard approach to technical assistance, combining funding with comprehensive support through subject matter experts, peer learning opportunities, and individualized technical assistance. The program's community-centered, equitable, and evidence-based approach amplified the voices of people with lived and living experience and fostered responsible collaboration across sectors. Participating sites reported significant capacity increases across all domains, with 93% initiating new projects that wouldn't have occurred otherwise and 98% feeling better equipped to implement overdose prevention work than before participation.
This intensive model of support created lasting change that extended far beyond the grant period, building sustainable infrastructure for communities to continue their life-saving work.
NACCHO, with support from CDC, developed the Implementation Blueprint for Rural Overdose Prevention and Response Strategies. This blueprint consists of five implementation profiles and a planning roadmap. The implementation profiles highlight the work and successful implementation of overdose prevention programs by five rural local health departments. This work builds off the collaborative work with JBS International that resulted in the development of Understanding the Needs of Rural Communities: Principles and Practices for Overdose Prevention and Response. The implementation profiles can be viewed and downloaded here:
This short how-to guide instructs LHDs on how to use NACCHO's opioid-focused planning templates.
This resource lists strategies - or "plays" - that communities can replicate or adapt in real-time.
Resource to help address the opioid epidemic on a local level.
Learn what's working in the United States.
NACCHO is engaged in opioid prevention and response efforts in many counties and cities.
Harm Reduction and Academic Detailing
Key Messages
Purpose and Intended Use
The harm reduction and primary care key messages are intended to be guiding points to make when meeting with providers during detailing sessions. They can and should be adapted, as needed, to best meet the needs of the community. For example, detailing visits are more effective when the detailer can clearly highlight and identify relevant data (e.g., local or state overdose data, HIV and Hep C transmission rates, etc.), guidelines (e.g. CDC opioid prescribing or tapering guidelines), and resources (e.g. a list of community organizations offering harm reduction services).
Academic Detailing Aid
Purpose and Intended Use
Similar to the key messages the detailing aid can and should be adapted based on the needs of the community and providers receiving the detailing. This can be used as a comprehensive resource to leave with primary care providers after detailing sessions, or individual sections can be provided as standalone resources to support providers on specific topics that arise during the sessions. Resources included in this aid are:
- Background on the Scope of the Overdose Crisis
- The Overlap between Harm Reduction and Trauma Informed Care
- Driving Factors of Substance Use and the Socio-Ecological Model
- Disproportionately Affected Populations
- Conversations Starters for Providers
- Impact and Outcomes of Harm Reduction Strategies
- Resources/Additional Information
NACCHO has several policy statements related to the Opioid Epidemic and its infectious disease consequences:
NACCHO also provides letters to Congress and the administration to influence policy in order to best support local health departments' response to the opioid epidemic, and advocates for sufficient funding to combat the opioid epidemic.
Legislative Actions
In March 2018, Michael E. Kilkenny, MD, MS Physician Director, Cabell-Huntington (WV) Health Department testified before the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee in a hearing "Combating the Opioid Crisis: Prevention and Public Health Solutions." Watch the full video to see Dr. Kilkenny describe how his health department has successfully led community efforts to combat the dual epidemics of opioid misuse and infectious diseases associated with opioid addiction, or read NACCHO's recap of the hearing on Twitter.
On November 13, 2017, NACCHO hosted a Congressional briefing "Tackling the Opioid Epidemic and its Hidden Casualties: Local Health Departments on the Frontlines" with cosponsors National Association of Counties and U.S. Conference of Mayors, with panelists that represented a range of local stakeholders in the fight against opioid use and abuse.
If you have a resource you’d like to share, questions to ask, or you’d like to learn more and be part of the conversation around local response to the opioid epidemic, please complete the following form.
