Enhance the ability of the wyoming department of health to rack and prevent nonfatal and fatal overdoses while also identifying emerging drug threats. - after several years of decline, wyoming has…

Enhance the ability of the wyoming department of health to rack and prevent nonfatal and fatal overdoses while also identifying emerging drug threats. - after several years of decline, wyoming has experienced increases in opioid-involved overdose deaths beginning in 2019, with the increase being driven by increases in synthetic opioid-involved deaths. Similarly, stimulant-involved overdose deaths, primarily involving methamphetamine, have also increased in wyoming over the past five years. Health inequities persist in that individuals who identify as american indian or black and those living in frontier areas of the state experience higher rates of overdose. While the wyoming department of health, public health division (WDH-PHD) has a strong history of work in substance use surveillance and substance use and overdose prevention, there remain critical gaps in both of these areas. The purpose of this project is for WDH-PHD to expand and enhance both surveillance and prevention activities. Specifically, in the surveillance realm, WDH-PHD will improve and enhance overall capacity to conduct surveillance, collect and disseminate timely data from emergency departments for suspected overdoses, collect and disseminate timely data on unintentional and undetermined intent drug overdose deaths, and improve biosurveillance by gathering and disseminating a standard set of laboratory data from biological specimens from suspected overdoses in emergency departments. WDH-PHD will also expand prevention activities by providing clinician education on evidence-based practices for pain management and screening, diagnosis, and linkage to care for opioid use disorder (OUD) and stimulant use disorder (STUD), expanding integration of prescription drug monitoring data with electronic health record systems, developing and maintaining partnerships between public health and public safety to respond to and prevent overdose, expanding the use of navigators to connect people to treatment, harm reduction, and recovery services, and expanding community-based linkage to care opportunities. WDH-PHD is applying for the core prevention and surveillance components as well as optional and competitive strategy 4. Through these activities, WDH-PHD expects to achieve long-term outcomes that include decreased fatal drug overdoses, decreased nonfatal drug overdoses, decreased illicit opioid and stimulant use including polysubstance use, enhanced laboratory capacity, increased uptake of evidence-based treatment and retention with long-term recovery supports, improved health equity among groups disproportionately affected by the overdose epidemic and those previously underserved by overdose prevention programs and the healthcare system, and decreased stigma related to use and overdose.