Collaboration Works: Lessons From Massachusetts and Maine

Partnerships between public safety and public health – as well as other partners – strengthen the response to the opioid and addiction epidemic. This session will go behind the scenes of two successful programs to demonstrate just how collaboration works.

From Massachusetts, presenters will explain the Plymouth County Outreach (PCO). Started in 2016 as a post-overdose outreach program, PCO has evolved into so much more, using real-time data to identify gaps within the community in an effort to reduce fatal overdoses. PCO is a multi-faceted collaboration of the county’s 27 municipal police departments, as well as Bridgewater State University Police Department, working together with recovery coaches and community organizations and coalitions to make treatment, resources, and harm-reduction tools more accessible to those living with substance use disorder (SUD) and their loved ones. Recent priorities include distributing harm-reduction kits, engaging the population of individuals experiencing homelessness, and engaging incarcerated individuals with a history of SUD. Efforts include targeting outreach in areas with a high rate of overdose, addressing social determinants of health, and placing a recovery coach within the jail. By meeting people where they are, PCO builds positive relationships with people who use drugs and in turn, reduces fatal overdoses in Plymouth County.

From Maine, presenters will outline the successes, barriers, and lessons learned in implementing the Overdose Prevention Through Intensive Outreach, Naloxone and Safety (OPTIONS) initiative during its first year. With leadership from the governor’s office, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Public Safety, the Office of Behavioral Health contracted with behavioral health organizations to hire and provide supervision for 16 field clinicians. These behavioral health clinicians, known as OPTIONS liaisons, each provide services for one county in the state and are embedded within a public safety agency as co-responders. A technical assistance team assists in guiding implementation and improving this public health and public safety partnership.