Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) in States - Massachusetts - Massachusetts (MA) will implement a comprehensive and cohesive program to track and prevent nonfatal and fatal overdoses while also identifying emerging drug threats. Using data to inform prevention efforts, the MA Department of Public Health (MDPH) aims to reduce drug overdose mortality and morbidity in MA over the next five years by implementing all the surveillance and prevention strategies in the Overdose Data to Action in States funding opportunity. While MA has made progress addressing the opioid epidemic, drug use and overdose remain very serious public health crises in the state. In 2020, MA had the fifth highest rate of opioid overdose-related death in the United States. While MA saw an encouraging decrease in opioid-related overdose deaths from 2016 to 2019, rates increased again each year of the COVID-19 pandemic, including an increase of 11% from 2020 to 2021. People who were non-Hispanic American Indian and non-Hispanic Black experienced the largest percentage increase in opioid overdose death rates from 2018 to 2021, with rates increasing by 103% and 146% respectively. To address this need, MA will enhance the significant foundation developed with the previous MA Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) cooperative agreement. Over the last several years, the state built strong systems to monitor trends rigorously and rapidly and to comprehensively respond to and prevent opioids, stimulants, and polysubstance misuse. MDPH’s proposal reflects an interdisciplinary response that MA has crafted with significant internal and external partnerships reflecting its commitment to achieving health equity and reducing disparities in drug overdose. MDPH aims to reduce fatal and non-fatal drug overdoses, reduce disparities in drug overdoses, and increase health equity among those disproportionately affected by the overdose epidemic and those previously underserved by overdose prevention programs and the health care system. During the period of performance, MDPH expects to achieve timely, detailed, comprehensive, and actionable surveillance data; increased data dissemination; increased data sharing and data availability; increased clinician awareness of evidence-based practices for pain management; increased clinician expertise and confidence to provide equitable opioid use disorder (OUD) and stimulant use disorder (StUD) care; increased collaboration, coordination, and communication among partners; and increased use of navigators to link persons who use drugs (PWUD) to care and services. MDPH will implement all required surveillance and prevention strategies. The surveillance OD2A-S funding will allow MDPH to support the continued surveillance staffing and data infrastructure, to continue to collect and report syndromic surveillance data from 100% of MA hospital emergency departments, and to continue to collect and report all three required data sources on all unintentional and undetermined intent drug overdose deaths occurring in MA. To prevent drug overdoses, MDPH will increase clinician expertise and confidence to provide evidence-based pain management, and equitable OUD and StUD care; ensure access to out-of-state data for MA health care entities that have integrated their EHR into MA’s prescription drug monitoring web portal; support a prescriber Warmline to bridge prescription needs for patients experiencing a buprenorphine treatment disruption and work in partnership with public health, public safety, and clinical providers to prepare for future disruptions; expand and enhance Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution services by using navigators to connect Black and Hispanic PWUD to services and expand access to drug checking for PWUD; and place Recovery Support Navigators in Hospitals and Peer Recovery Support Centers in areas of that state with high rates of disproportionately impacted populations.
