ES 1. Monitor Health Status to Identify and Solve Community Health Problems

Core Function: Assessment

Assessment activities for ES 1 include: 1) accurate, periodic assessment of a community’s health status, 2) the use of appropriate technology (such as geographic information systems) to interpret and communicate data to diverse audiences and 3) collaboration among all local public health system components in promoting health and improving quality of life.

Local data, where available, are likely to be the most current and can provide important insights into the opioid epidemic. Most health departments have limited resources to collect primary (first hand) local data and must rely on data available from other sources. National, state and community-level data sources on opioids and other drugs include: police, fire, and EMS data; death records; hospital emergency department and discharge reports, and behavioral health surveys (such as youth risk behavior surveys). Local health department staff are also encouraged to partner with existing substance use prevention coalitions in their regions, which may collect some of these local data.

Sources of Local Data Related to Opioids

• The Connecticut Department of Public Health (CT DPH) provides statistics on the statewide opioid epidemic, including drug overdose data and emergency department utilization for suspected opioid overdoses. https://portal.ct.gov/DPH/Health-Education-Management–Surveillance/The-Office-of-Injury-Prevention/Opioids-and-Prescription-Drug-Overdose-Prevention-Program#Data 
• CT DPH supports an interactive dashboard with drug overdose data to increase public awareness about the impact of the opioid crisis in Connecticut. In this dashboard, demographic, geographic and type of drug-related overdose information can be visualized. 
  https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/heather.clinton/viz/SUDORS_Dashboard_final2/OverdoseDashboard
• Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) provides annual statistics that include information on accidental drug intoxication and drug related deaths. https://portal.ct.gov/OCME/Statistics 
• Connecticut’s Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP), overseen by the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection, collects prescription data on selected controlled drugs to be used by providers to improve the quality of patient care and reduce prescription abuse, addiction, and overdose. The website contains a variety of program and educational resources as well as statistics on the county level. https://portal.ct.gov/DCP/Prescription-Monitoring-Program/Prescription-Monitoring-Program 
• The DMHAS Center for Prevention Evaluation and Statistics (CPES) at UConn Health, supports the Prevention and Health Promotion (PHP) Unit of the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) through the identification, collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of behavioral health data and resources. CPES convenes the State Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup (SEOW), and maintains the SEOW Data Portal, an interactive portal for behavioral health data and products, in partnership with the Connecticut Data Collaborative. http://preventionportal.ctdata.org/index.html 
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tool shows geographic comparisons at the state, county, and zip code levels of de-identified opioid prescription claims for Medicare and Medicaid, allowing users to see both the number and the percentage of Medicare claims at the local level. https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/OpioidMap.html
• US Department of Health and Human Services map of Connecticut accidental drug overdose deaths lists each accidental death associated with drug overdose in Connecticut from 2012-2018. The map indicates the town in which the death occurred. https://data.ct.gov/Health-and-Human-Services/Accidental-Drug-Related-Deaths-2012-2018/ecj5-r2i9
• City Health Dashboard, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, contains 36 measures of health and health equity, meant to guide local solutions in 500 domestic cities. It includes 8 Connecticut cities (Bridgeport, Danbury, Hartford, New Britain, New Haven, Norwalk, Stamford, Waterbury) Note: Opioid data are from 2016. https://www.cityhealthdashboard.com/   

Other Data Sources

• National Institute on Drug Abuse maintains a website that contains data on state opioid-involved overdose death rates and opioid prescribing levels and ranks the states against each other. https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-summaries-by-state
• Injury Facts of the National Safety Council hosts a tool that allows for comparison of national fatality trends by drug type, age and gender. https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics/drugoverdoses/data-details/
• ArcGis, a leading mapping and location analytics platform, hosts a collection of maps including opioid prescription claims and providers, drug overdose deaths, as well as additional national-level statistics, information, and resources. http://urbanobservatory.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=f86499d99e4340b68229eaccfb02b29f