Rhode Island
Department of Health
Population: 1.057 million
Rhode Island saw a slight decrease in the rate of fatal overdoses within its borders (-6.5 percent between 2016 and 2018); however, it remains one of the ten states with the highest fatal overdose rates. The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) used data from ODMAP to target outreach to areas where it was most needed. RIDOH built on activities in overdose prevention, rescue, treatment, and recovery, including a weekly surveillance response intervention (SRI) call with behavioral health and first responder partners, as well as drug intelligence officers and data analysts from the New England HIDTA, to review data and implement a rapid response. During the project, the team continued to convene the weekly SRI call and incorporated new data sets, including data from ODMAP. RIDOH also provided subawards to high-burden communities to help facilitate utilization of rapid-response data that could inform targeted local response efforts.