Improving Partnerships Between Public Health and Public Safety to Reduce Overdose Deaths: An Inventory From the CDC Overdose Data to Action Funding Initiative

Abstract

Rates of drug overdose deaths are high and growing. Innovative strategies, such as partnerships between public health and public safety (PH/PS) agencies, are needed to curb these trends. Support for PH/PS partnerships as an overdose prevention strategy is growing; however, little information exists on the makeup of activities within this strategy. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) cooperative agreement supports innovative and comprehensive overdose surveillance and prevention activities across the United States. Within OD2A, funded states, counties/cities, and territories may implement PH/PS partnerships to reduce overdose deaths. An inventory of PH/PS activities described in OD2A recipients' year 2 annual progress reports was conducted. These activities were abstracted for PH/PS partners' roles, intended audience, deliverables, objectives, stage of overdose risk addressed, and type of strategy implemented. The inventory revealed that 49 of the 66 funded jurisdictions planned 109 PH/PS activities. Most aimed to bridge knowledge, data, and service gaps and intervened at higher levels of overdose risk. This analysis highlights opportunities to adapt and expand cross-sector overdose prevention efforts across the overdose risk continuum.