(The Center Square) – Ohio wants to better track drug overdoses and substance-abuse issues to try to help communities better assess needs and develop plans to deal with opioid concerns.
Through the National Institute of Health and Ohio State University’s HEALing Communities Study, the state has launched new data dashboards it hopes will better track and report data on overdose deaths and other drug-related issues in all 88 Ohio counties.
The dashboards were adopted and expanded from the study, which was the largest implementation study conducted in addiction research aimed at investigating how tools for preventing and treating opioid misuse, opioid use disorder and opioid overdose are most effective at the local level.
A total of 5,017 people in Ohio died from unintentional drug overdoses in 2020, which was a 25% increase over the previous year, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
“Expanding the HEALing Communities Study dashboards to all 88 Ohio counties provides invaluable data that will allow local organizations and communities to better plan for their needs as they battle this public health crisis in our state – and ultimately save lives,” Gov. Mike DeWine said.
The dashboards report on 55 opioid-related measures including overdose deaths, high-risk prescribing, overdoses treated in emergency departments, naloxone units distributed by Project DAWN, individuals receiving and being continuously enrolled in treatment and EMS events involving naloxone.
The total Ohio group consists of experts from Ohio State, University of Cincinnati, Case Western Reserve University and Ohio University, along with state agency leaders and community groups. Overall, The HEALing Communities Study involves about 125 faculty and staff working with the state’s RecoveryOhio initiative.
“The dashboards allow us to use real-time research to focus prevention, treatment and recovery programs across the state in a transparent platform available to the public,” Aimee Shadwick, director of RecoveryOhio, said. “Eventually, we will expand these databases to not only include data on opioid use disorders, but all substance use disorders.”
