Project Name: Washington State Project to Prevent Prescription Drug/Opioid Overdose (WA-PDO)
Project Summary: The Washington State Project to Prevent Prescription Drug/Opioid Overdose (WA-PDO) is a statewide network of organizations mobilizing communities, providing opioid overdose response training, and distributing naloxone through syringe services programs in five high need areas to lay first responders to reduce overdose risk and deaths among people who use opioids.
Project Abstract: The Washington State Project to Prevent Prescription Drug/Opioid Overdose ((WA-PDO) will be a collaborative five-year project between the Washington State Health Care Authority's (HCA) Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery (DBHR) and the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) with the purpose of preventing opioid overdose and deaths from opioid overdose, and sustaining and building local infrastructure to plan, implement, evaluate, and fund opioid overdose prevention efforts in the long-term. WA-PDO will develop a network of opioid overdose experts and interventions to efficiently extend core opioid overdose prevention expertise and centralized resources at DBHR and DOH to five diverse high need areas (HNA) across the state. WA-PDO will reach adults who use opioids, lay person and community members who may be the first responders at an opioid overdose event. Core interventions include stakeholder engagement, opioid overdose prevention and response training, and naloxone distribution. Objectives include: 1) develop opioid overdose prevention strategic plane in five HNAs; 2) equip at least 7,400 lay responders per year with naloxone; 3) educate at least 2,400 laypersons per year on identifying an opioid overdose and naloxone administration; 4) facilitate coordination in five HNAs among local and regional stakeholders and with state agencies; 5) build and harmonize data infrastructures in inform resource allocation, maintain opioid overdose surveillance, and measure outcomes; and 6) create knowledge translation infrastructure to disseminate emerging data, best practices, training, and technical assistance. Over the five-year project, our activities will reach 13,000 lay responders and individuals at community organizations across Washington State with opioid overdose response training and 37,000 lay responders with lifesaving naloxone. We estimate that we will service 20,000 unique individuals over the life of the five-year grant and provide services to up to 37,000, a combination of unique individuals and those returning for services.