Taking Action to End Overdose Deaths

Each year, drug overdoses claim more than 100,000 lives, devastating individuals, families, and entire communities. The rise in synthetic opioids like fentanyl has made overdoses more deadly, with deaths more than doubling since 2015. This crisis intersects with rising mental health concerns, housing instability, and systemic racial and economic disparities, all of which put vulnerable communities, such as Black, Indigenous, and rural communities, as well as people living in poverty, at risk. Barriers to care, increased stigma, and lack of supportive infrastructure intensify these risks. Ending overdose deaths requires urgency, compassion, and coordinated action that acknowledges the full humanity of those affected.

A Strategy for Overdose Prevention

The CDC’s Overdose Prevention Strategy emphasizes that there is no single solution to the overdose crisis. Instead, the most effective approach combines multiple evidence-based strategies tailored to local needs. These strategies include prevention, harm reduction, treatment, recovery support, and cross-sector collaboration: 

• Prevention: Prevention programs can play a critical role in addressing the opioid crisis by reducing the risk of substance use through education about the dangers of opioids. These initiatives can be used to inform schools, local health departments, community centers, and online platforms to reach a broad audience. Proactive screening is important to identify at-risk individuals, particularly those with mental health or substance use issues. This early support can help prevent serious opioid use. Raising awareness, involving the community, and using careful medical practices can help create a strong support system for health and safety.
• Harm Reduction: Harm reduction strategies are vital for public health, particularly regarding substance use. The goal of harm reduction is to minimize the negative impacts of risky health behaviors through prevention and intervention. Key initiatives include making naloxone widely available. Naloxone is a medication that quickly reverses opioid overdoses. Providing naloxone in places like pharmacies, community centers, and local organizations can help individuals, families, and first responders respond quickly during an overdose. Another important effort is supporting syringe service programs (SSPs). These programs help reduce the spread of diseases, such as HIV and Hepatitis C, among people who inject drugs and share syringes. SSPs provide clean needles, safe disposal options, education on safer injection practices, and testing for infectious diseases. Many SSPs also connect participants to important healthcare services, mental health support, and addiction treatment resources.
• Treatment: Effective treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) includes both medications and counseling. Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), such as buprenorphine and methadone, can prevent overdose deaths and decrease high-risk behaviors that contribute to the spread of infectious diseases. Integrating Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) in all settings, including primary care, emergency departments, hospitals, and the criminal justice system, can ensure timely care.
• Recovery Support: Individuals in recovery require long-term, comprehensive support to maintain their healing. Comprehensive support includes peer recovery specialists, supportive housing, employment programs, and consistent follow-up after emergency care. Embedding recovery supports within healthcare, housing, and outreach systems can improve engagement and reduce relapse.
• Cross-Sector Collaboration: No single system can address overdoses alone. Healthcare providers, schools, law enforcement, and community organizations must work together to build strong networks of care. Collaboration ensures people receive consistent support across services, from crisis response to long-term recovery.

Coordinated Efforts to Prevent Overdoses

Addressing the complex challenges of the opioid crisis requires coordinated effort across various levels of government and community engagement. At the national level, agencies like the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration can strengthen prevention efforts by funding programs and sharing best practices, as well as ensuring that federal guidance prioritizes equity and promotes consistent implementation across states. Stronger federal leadership can accelerate the distribution of lifesaving tools like naloxone and fentanyl test strips, incentivize states to expand treatment access, and build national data systems to track progress and gaps in real time.

States play a critical role in turning national priorities into action. They can expand Medicaid to cover the full continuum of addiction and mental health services, remove regulatory barriers that restrict access to medications for opioid use disorder, and increase access to naloxone without a prescription. Additionally, states have the authority to disseminate opioid settlement funds, which can be used to enhance prevention and treatment programs. States with declining overdose rates have made clear policy choices, like scaling up medication-assisted treatment, ensuring warm handoffs from emergency care to long-term recovery, and embedding harm reduction into public health systems.

Local leaders, including county health departments, first responders, schools, and community coalitions, are often closest to the people at highest risk, and their decisions frequently determine whether interventions are successful. Expanding naloxone distribution through community-based efforts can normalize lifesaving care. Outreach services and mobile clinics can connect hard-to-reach groups on the ground with clinical and social support services, while fostering trust. By centering lived experience in program and policy design, local leaders can ensure that responses are effective, humane, and grounded in dignity.

Take Action Now

For Individuals and Families

• Get trained to use naloxone
• Keep naloxone at home or on hand (many states offer free kits)
• Use fentanyl test strips when available and avoid using drugs alone
• Talk openly about addiction and support loved ones in recovery

For Community Organizations and Providers

• Use SAMHSA’s Opioid Overdose Prevention Toolkit to guide strategy
• Partner with pharmacies to expand naloxone access
• Support mobile outreach, syringe exchange, and safe use programs
• Promote peer recovery services
• Use mapping tools like the Overdose Mapping Tool to identify hotspots

For Policymakers and Funders

• Increase funding for medication-assisted treatment and harm reduction initiatives
• Expand Medicaid coverage for mental health and addiction treatment
• Support integrated data systems and local dashboards to track impact
• Ensure equitable distribution of naloxone and treatment access, especially in rural and BIPOC communities

Tools and Resources

• Community Commons – tools, maps, and guides for local response
• CDC WONDER – overdose mortality data
• SAMHSA Treatment Services Locator – search for local treatment providers
• Advancing Policies for Substance Use Prevention – research, strategies, policies, and data for action