The Brandeis Opioid Resource Connector serves community stakeholders working to combat the opioid epidemic. It is a product of the Brandeis Opioid Policy Research Collaborative.
The heart of the Brandeis Opioid Resource Connector is our curated list of Program Models that address the many aspects of the opioid crisis.
Successful responses to the opioid crisis involve coordination among agencies and stakeholders within a community, ensuring that essential interventions across the continuum of care are implemented with available resources.
Understanding the numbers behind the opioid epidemic, and demonstrating how it affects a community, are critical steps in determining what approaches should be prioritized, and in informing local efforts.
This section contains links to a curated list of external resources related to actionable responses to the opioid crisis.
An important step in countering the opioid crisis is to prevent new cases.
Prevention often includes providing treatment providers, educators, parents, and potential substance users with the knowledge and skills they need to prevent harmful behaviors.
Research indicates that comprehensive, effective treatment for opioid use disorder increases one’s chances of wellness.
There is a range of evidence-based approaches from FDA-approved medications to cognitive-behavioral interventions to mutual aid groups. Treatment planning should be tailored to the individual.
We know that opioid use disorder can be a chronic condition and recurrence is common. Recovery is the process by which people sustain wellness by focusing on improving one’s health, sense of purpose, and connection with community.
Harm reduction aims to reduce the adverse health, economic, and social consequences of substance use. Effective harm reduction approaches are designed to be practical, feasible, and safe.
This page features a rotating display of successful program models. Each program model is a real-world case study in community-wide coordinated action, informing stakeholders of what does and doesn’t work in addressing the opioid crisis.
Each program model illustrates cutting edge, innovative approaches, and encourages adoption (or modification as needed) by other communities.
Communities can encourage adoption of overdose detection technologies that enable timely medical intervention
Those with substance use disorder who consume drugs alone are especially at risk for death since there are no witnesses to respond to a possible overdose. To help minimize this risk, technologies and phone apps have been developed to provide non-intrusive, privacy-protecting overdose detection that triggers a call for immediate assistance, for example treatment with naloxone. Community stakeholders engaged in reducing overdose deaths can encourage adoption of these technologies by opioid users and by facilities where overdoses tend to occur, for example in public restrooms at medical centers and restaurants. Existing detection technologies and apps include:
A 2023 literature review gives detailed descriptions of these and other overdose detection technologies and apps. An analysis of data from the Canada's National Overdose Response System found that monitoring apps have been used to successfully reverse opioid overdoses, and a survey found acceptance of a restroom overdose detection system among first responders in a medical facility. News reports on the restroom anti-motion detection system are available here and here. A recent international review of 14 studies involving these technologies found that overdose detection can play a critical role in responding to the opioid crisis.
Virtual monitoring apps and motion detecting technologies can facilitate timely and anonymous access to emergency care for people who use opioids.
