Implementing a Health Equity Needs Assessment to Advance Overdose Prevention Strategies

Drug overdose fatality is a public health crisis in the United States and mortality rates continue to rise. Prevention efforts among federal, state, and local agencies have expanded to better address root causes of overdose, including health inequity and related social determinants of health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides funding and technical assistance (TA) to state, territorial, and local jurisdictions through the Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) cooperative agreement to support overdose prevention efforts. Recently, those efforts grew to incorporate more tailored approaches to promote health equity principles and cultural responsiveness. Specifically, growing interest in stigma reduction around opioid use and health inequity necessitated development of a needs assessment to understand OD2A jurisdictional capacity to address these issues. CDC, in collaboration with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), launched this initiative to identify priorities, needs, and gaps among jurisdictions regarding health equity and methods to embed it in overdose prevention work. This project harnesses the efforts of national health organizations to address a literature gap on TA needs and jurisdictional capacity in this area. Domains for the needs assessment include:

• Health department capacity and readiness
• Identification of knowledge and gaps in skills among staff
• Program planning and development
• Partner engagement

This is the first national needs assessment to capture data on capacity to address health equity from 66 jurisdictions in the US. Findings will provide direction on TA and agenda-setting to build capacity in health equity around overdose prevention.