Boston public health infrastructure and workforce improvements project - the proposed boston OD2A (component a) project will be led by the boston public health commission, the city's health department

Working with an experienced team of community, healthcare and public safety partners, we will build on and expand existing efforts to address overdose morbidity and mortality in the city. Boston OD2A seeks to reduce the inequitable overdose burden affecting black and hispanic-identifying residents, individuals experiencing homelessness and individuals returning to the community from prison or jail. The overarching purpose of boston OD2A is to use data to drive actions that reduce overdose morbidity and mortality in boston-especially for individuals and neighborhoods disproportionally affected by overdoses. The target population includes those experiencing homeless, black and hispanic residents and the reentry population. The intended outcomes of boston OD2A align with those in the funding announcement, including: reduced overdose burden, enhanced ability of programs to respond to overdose trends for the target population; expanded and improved use of surveillance, program evaluation, and community data to drive prevention action that are community/population appropriate; increased capacity related to overdose prevention and access to naloxone; increased number of pwud engaged in care and harm reduction services; improved outcomes for SUD patients at target community health centers; decreased high risk opioid prescribing and increased use of evidence-based pain care; and improved health system and clinician capacity to provide care for OUD and SUD. Target populations for the proposed project include individuals experiencing homelessness, residents who are black or hispanic and individuals reentering the community from incarceration. Key strategies include: (a) linkage and retention to care by funding three substance use navigators working in 3 community health centers in boston neighborhoods experiencing a high overdose burden. Their role will be to: connect people to services; initiate linkage to care activities; support retention in care; maintain recovery; and support reengagement in care; and support other overdose prevention activities. The navigators will provide prevention services in both healthcare and community settings. (B) expansion of harm reduction activities (naloxone distribution and overdose prevention training) to provide additional services in jails and prisons, to people returning to the community after incarceration and to spanish-speaking communities. (C) education health care providers in community health centers and other clinical settings serving out target population. (D) working with our public safety partner, boston emergency medical services to creating an internal dashboard aggregating narcotics-related incident (NRI) data with other key data-and sharing data and key insights to stakeholders.