Strategy B: Strategic Planning - Substance Use and Overdose Prevention
Strategy Description
Develop a collaborative strategic plan that addresses substance use, overdose and intersecting issues, and ensure that diverse partners, including people with lived and living experience, are engaged in the process.
Expected Outcome(s)
A collaborative strategic plan is developed and submitted to the Healthy Communities Program Consultant as part of FY27 reporting that addresses substance use, overdose and intersecting issues, and diverse partners, including those with lived experience, are engaged in the process.
Potential Activities to Support This Strategy
- Work with community partners, including those with lived and living experience, to plan how to use the Opioid Settlement funds to address community needs.
- Design and implement a stakeholder survey to identify community assets and needs for addressing substance use and overdose prevention.
- Host events (town halls, focus groups) to gather community input on concerns about the overdose crisis and to identify ways to address current needs.
- Create an advisory group of people with lived and living experience to inform the process and ensure that resources created using Opioid Settlement funds are culturally responsive. Funds can be used to pay participants honorarium for their time.
- Evaluate the planning process to identify challenges and barriers to involvement of diverse partners. Data collected during the evaluation will inform the planning process moving forward.
- Provide training to county leadership, partner organizations and community partners
- Develop educational materials on evidence-based overdose prevention training to help inform the planning process.
Recommended Partners
- People with lived and living experience (people who use substances; sex workers; legal system involvement and incarceration, etc.)
- Harm reduction organizations
- Existing syringe services programs (SSPs)
- Local health departments
- Community-based organizations
- Faith communities
- Health systems
- Substance use disorder treatment providers
- Opioid Treatment Programs and others who provide medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD)
- AIDS service organizations
- First responders
- Jail/detention centers
- Other individuals and organizations with experience working with underserved and vulnerable populations
The North Carolina Opioid Settlement with the three largest drug distributors (McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen) and manufacturer Johnson & Johnson is a historic $26 billion agreement that will help bring desperately needed resources to communities harmed by the opioid epidemic. A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the state and local government directs how Opioid Settlement funds are distributed and used in North Carolina. Due to the high need for additional funding and services along with the high-profile nature of the Opioid Settlement, there are several partners involved in the decision-making process for how to spend the money allocated to each county and municipality. To create high-impact and sustainable programs, planning to implement the allowable strategies in a way that served populations of highest need is paramount.
Regardless of the strategy chosen, people with lived and living experience of substance use should be involved in all phases of the planning, implementation and evaluation of programming. Involving people that will ultimately benefit from the services at the beginning is one way to ensure that the programs will meet the needs of the population. Consider providing opportunities for people using overdose prevention, substance use disorder treatment and harm reduction programs in your county to provide regular feedback about the strategic plans being developed.
Addressing the needs of this at-risk population will require local health departments to work across sectors and with potentially new or non-traditional partners.
Further, involving people with lived experience in organizational development and decision-making will challenge individual and institutional stigma, and will allow people with lived experience to use that experience to support and inform others.
Intervention Examples
A local health department worked with their county coalition to provide initial feedback on how to use the Settlement Funds and identified ways to incorporate feedback from community members throughout the planning process. They decided on having one-on-one and group meetings with key partners, four community meetings, and sent out a community survey for input. Key partners included in the process were the board of health, re-entry council, individuals with lived and living experience, the county sheriff, behavioral health providers and so many more. Partners recommended designating funds through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process to support multi-year projects.
A local substance use coalition formed an ad hoc committee to develop recommendations for how to use the Opioid Settlement funds and presented the plan to county government. The ad hoc committee included behavioral health, community members, a community health center, county jail, the local police department, the local harm reduction agency, prevention agency and treatment providers. The recommendations included addressing stigma related to substance use. The county affirmed their intent to use the report to inform their process.
Local health departments have been meeting regionally to identify opportunities for collaboration and coordination. Regional coordination is an opportunity to leverage funds to extend the work and expand access to overdose prevention strategies.
One local health department hosted forums to receive input from community members on how to best use the funds. Participants were encouraged to select their top three priorities with the funds.
One local coalition used a results-based accountability framework to identify barriers and facilitators to the work as well as key partners. They used this information to select the strategies that would make the biggest impact in addressing the overdose crisis in their community.
Related Programs
The NC Division of Public Health’s Injury and Violence Prevention Branch (IVPB), a leader in the state’s response to the overdose crisis, supports local health departments and community partners on a range of topics related to overdose prevention and harm reduction.
- Provide technical assistance and training to individuals and agencies on evidence-based overdose prevention and collaborative strategic planning.
- Encourage collaboration and education, through events like the Opioid and Prescription Drug Abuse Advisory Committee (OPDAAC) and the Injury-Free NC SSP Academy (now the Harm Reduction Academy). Check out recordings for the SSP Virtual Series.
- Presenting harm reduction and substance use health services as vital aspects of a broad, multidisciplinary response to the overdose crisis, in resources such as the Opioid and Substance Use Action Plan and the Menu of Local Actions to Prevent Opioid Overdose in NC.
- Partnering with the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners to host webinars on the strategies of the Opioid Settlement including Collaborative Strategic Planning.