Getting Started With Local Opioid Work

Are you a member of a local government who is part of a local opioid task force, hoping to incorporate mapping or data collection into your opioid abuse prevention and response efforts, or utilize national maps to create awareness in your community? Here are some strategies that you may consider to begin:

• Learn from the Opioid Mapping Initiative. Much of the work from participants has been cataloged at the initiative website. Take time to review the various applications, datasets, and storytelling approaches used by other local governments to drive community impact.
• Start collecting and analyzing data for your community. It’s important to remember that you do not need to reinvent the wheel by creating applications, datasets, and maps from scratch. Many of the participating governments in the Opioid Mapping Initiative have open-source applications and templates that you can customize for your location’s available data. A listing of typical data sources and the stakeholders who may maintain them are found here.
• Embed the National Prescription Drop-off map and the National Naloxone Access map into your government’s website. This may be the easiest step for those who do not yet have the capacity to build out an opioid task force or awareness initiative. These maps provide community members with quick, localized data they can use to help those in their lives who may be struggling with addiction.
• Read in-depth profiles of locations that have used data in creative ways. Tempe, Ariz. maps EMS data to determine where and when opioid overdoses are most common, and then distributes resources accordingly. Three local governments weight the value of different mapping techniques, with raw data in Connecticut, aggregated data in Oakland County, Mich., and heat maps in Colorado’s Tri-County area. Oakland County, Mich. also uses data to track prescription drug dosages by zip code, and publishes results on their Opioid Open Data Initiative page. Colorado’s Northern Larimer County realized that addiction and mental health are intertwined, so now they map areas where people struggle the most with mental health through a community wellness survey. New participants in the Opioid Mapping Initiative have copied the dashboards of other participants, as happened with Tempe, Ariz. and Northern Kentucky.
• Reach out for ideas. Contact Jeremiah Lindemann at celebratelostlovedones@gmail.com if you have questions about how to get started, different approaches, or would like a connection to one of the local governments mentioned in the case studies.

Additional Resources

Still looking for more information? You can find out about local and national efforts to use data and mapping to combat the opioid epidemic in these articles:

• Opioid Data Analysis and Resources, The Center for Disease Control
• Why Data about the Opioid Epidemic is so Unreliable, Slate
• Tempe, ASU to work together on wastewater monitoring to improve public health, Arizona State University
• Medicare Part D Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tool, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services
• Appalachian Overdose Mapping Tool, National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago
• Regional Hospital Utilization and Medication-Related Data, Quality Innovation Network