Hamilton County Public Health Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Site-Based Program

Hamilton County Public Health (HCPH) is requesting funds to improve its response to overdose deaths and have more real time data as it relates to next of kin interviews and identify and support innovative community overdose prevention strategies as identified by the Overdose Fatality Review (OFR) Team. HCPH will expand the OFR and next-of-kin interviewing to increase access to qualitative data and create space for implementation of OFR recommendations. The primary activities that will be implemented include 1) Interview friends and family of deceased individuals; 2) Interview friends and family of individuals who currently have an SUD and may have suffered a nonfatal overdose; 3) Partner with Hamilton County Heroin Task Force to serve as liaison between HCPH, QRT, and local law enforcement; 4) Partner with an academic evaluator (Ohio University) to evaluate the project; 5) Develop a dashboard that showcases OFR activities and recommendations; 6) Develop a tool to determine which recommendations are suggested for funding; 7) Outreach to hospitals and funeral homes; 8) Lead OFR meetings. This project will serve Hamilton County residents. Expected project outcomes include increasing the number of next of kin interviews by 50%, obtaining a baseline number of interviews of loved ones who know someone in active addiction and implementing and providing funding for one or two OFR recommendations per project year.