Partner Mapping
Identifying partners is a key element to the successful execution of an overdose response plan. Because health departments can benefit from the supplemental surveillance provided by their community and agency partners, the more established the connections, the better the information will be. Additionally, when first creating a response plan in the community, there may be a list of desired partners, but establishing the necessary connections may not happen immediately. Building trust between partners may take time, and it may be a longer or more involved process to develop a fully integrated community level overdose response plan.
Assemble Your Response Team
It is important to identify roles and responsibilities during an overdose response. Use this partner map to identify current and aspirational partners and document specific actions of each during a response.
| Partner Role | Who | Responsibilities |
|---|---|---|
| Leadership | State, local, tribal, or territorial health departments | Lead and oversee the response. Convene stakeholders, set priorities, and activate response protocols. |
| Surveillance | Epidemiologists, syndromic surveillance teams | Manage and analyze data and coordinate data across system. Detect and monitor anomalies. |
| Laboratory | Public health laboratories, hospital labs, forensic toxicology labs | Conduct confirmatory testing (e.g., fentanyl analogs, xylazine). Note: Assess lab capacity and ability to respond during an anomaly. |
| Communications | Communications staff, crisis and risk communication specialists, media contacts | Develop and coordinate messaging for internal stakeholders, the public, and the media. Avoid stigmatizing language; focus on toxicity, not potency. |
| Response Measures | Health departments, treatment providers, harm reduction service providers, first responders | Implement prevention and control strategies, such as naloxone and fentanyl test strip distribution. Provide treatment and behavioral health services. |
| Wrap-around Services | Social service providers, housing agencies, behavioral health partners | Support long-term recovery through access to healthcare, housing, transportation, family services, and employment. |
| Response Staff | Health departments, treatment providers, community-based overdose prevention providers, first responders | Provide staffing during response, consider reaching out to CDC for an Epi-Aid or to the Opioid Rapid Response Program |
| Incident Command Structure | Health department leadership, emergency management officials | Develop/adapt an incident command framework, and integrate overdose response into existing public health emergency structures. Also consider this prepared by HHS |
| Healthcare Providers | Treatment providers (clinical and behavioral health) | Deliver timely treatment and ongoing care. |
| Regulations and Policies | Health department legal counsel, policymakers, insurers | Review and apply relevant laws and policies, including: Good Samaritan laws, Fentanyl test strip legality Naloxone access laws MOUD coverage under Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurance |
| Public Health Response Team | Health department staff | Train staff on substance use trends, overdose prevention, and engagement strategies for people who use drugs. CDC offers training materials available on its website. CDC offers training materials available on its website. |
Wyoming State Department of Health's (WDOH) Integrated Overdose Response Network
As a centralized state agency, the Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) leverages strong partnerships with law enforcement, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Vital Records, and local prevention partners to monitor and respond to overdose trends across the state. They draw on a wide range of data sources—including mortality data, hospital discharge, outpatient visits, Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), EMS, law enforcement, and poison control reports—to guide their work. A partnership between WDH, Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program (ODMAP), and the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program has enabled development and distribution of anomaly alerts and collaboration with prevention partners and law enforcement on local response. The WDH prevention network, through the Community Prevention Unit (CPU), spans all 23 counties in the state, supporting naloxone distribution and targeted overdose prevention. They also work with five independent county health departments. All counties benefit from the agency’s centralized expertise to help fill gaps caused by limited local resources. While county-level response capacity can be constrained and alert deployment must be carefully managed, Wyoming is steadily strengthening infrastructure, expanding prevention efforts, and enhancing coordination with neighboring states.
Developing A Partner Communication Plan
A communication plan should be grounded in the specific processes, activities, and decision points of the response plan. This involves identifying all points where communication is needed (communication “intersects”) and clearly defining who needs to receive information at each stage (e.g., internal staff, partners, leadership, or external stakeholders), as outlined in resources such as Minnesota’s Overdose Cluster Response Messaging Plan.
The plan should also identify and prioritize the key information that must be shared for each audience and purpose. Not all information is appropriate for all audiences. For example, internal alerts typically do not need to include general information on overdose prevention resources or signs and symptoms of overdose, as the intended recipients are already familiar with this content. Focusing messages on actionable, audience-specific information helps ensure timely, effective communication during an overdose anomaly response.
Role of the Health Department
The health department (state, regional, local) will need to reexamine their role in overdose response, as it is not the same as in emergency response. In an emergency response, the health department is the first source of the pertinent information and activates a pre-arranged response. In an overdose response, the health department’s role is to validate and confirm other sources of information, and the health department response may be delayed by hours or days compared to other front-line workers. This is why it is important to have a functional network of partners in the community providing information. If we compare the overdose to the analogy of a spiderweb, when the overdose hits the web (our networked community of partners), we can respond like a spider because no matter where it hits, we are all connected and communicating.
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