Continued Linkage to Hope

Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County (PHDMC) is one of 113
local governmental health departments in Montgomery County, Ohio and serves an estimated
population of 537,309 residents. PHDMC has provided drug epidemic surveillance since 2010
and co-leads a community-wide effort to respond to the drug crisis, the Community Overdose
Action Team (COAT). The COAT members are supportive and invested in the implementation
of the Continued Linkage to Hope Project. The purpose of the Continued Linkage to Hope
Project is to enhance data sharing among partners, advance data collection and analysis, and
expand the current Certified Peer Recovery Support (CPRS) services into the criminal justice
and hospital systems by filling a gap in the continuum of care for those who are in active
addiction. The Continued Linkage to Hope Project will address the allowable uses of funding by:
(1) Further enhancing and expanding a comprehensive real-time data system to include regional
information, collection, analysis, and dissemination. PHDMC will continue to work with its data
partners to integrate hospital and criminal justice data systems into a care coordination platform
that will be available to the CPRS’s to assist in response to those in active addiction. (2)
Enhancing and expanding the current Overdose Fatality Review efforts by integrating qualitative
data collection to contextualize overdose trends as well as barriers to care following fatal and
nonfatal overdoses. The data has been and will continue to be used to develop program and
policy recommendations and improve coordination and collaboration between agencies and
community conditions to prevent future overdose deaths. (3) Prototyping a risk stratification
system to prioritize and respond to drug overdose survivors by utilizing a machine-learning
algorithm to identify the largest risk factors of addicted individuals. PHDMC and other county
behavioral health providers will use the scores to determine the level of risk of future overdose or
death. (4) Expanding law enforcement and court-based interventions to expedite treatment and
recovery services for individuals who are at high risk of a drug overdose by utilizing CPRS
services. The Continued Linkage to Hope Project will enhance and expand a system of care that
increases engagement for those in active addiction by embedding CPRS’s into the municipal
courts. CPRS’s will provide the much-needed support and direct connection to additional
resources that will decrease future criminal justice involvement and increase individuals’
likelihood of moving towards recovery.