International Overdose Awareness Day: August 31, 2024

Overdose continues to impact the lives of so many around the world. The theme of the 2024 International Overdose Awareness Day, August 31, 2024, is Together We Can—a call to action to disrupt the heartache and devastation caused by overdose. Everyone can contribute to healing individuals, families, communities, and nations impacted by substance use and overdose.

While the first 3 waves of the overdose epidemic were characterized by the availability of increasingly potent opioids (prescription opioids, to heroin, to fentanyl), this 4th and latest wave is characterized by polysubstance, or concurrent use of multiple substances.

Westat Experts Understand the Challenges

While the changing dynamics of this epidemic are daunting, Westat researchers are working to build capacity for implementing, measuring, and improving evidence-based practices, policies, and research that inform solutions. Kelly Cronin and Talia Spark, PhD, both Principal Research Associates from Westat’s Behavioral Health and Health Policy practice, offer reflections on lives lost, the work ahead, and what gives them hope.

For 25 years, Cronin has worked with hospitals and health systems in a variety of ways. For 16 years, she has conducted outreach and enrollment activities for hospitals selected to join the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN). DAWN is a nationwide public health surveillance system that captures data on emergency department visits related to recent substance use and misuse from records of participating hospitals.

During a different chapter of her career, Cronin delivered substance use disorder treatment in a variety of settings to adolescents, people navigating familial violence, veterans, and those from marginalized communities. She has walked alongside patients who died from injuries and illnesses related to substance use disorder. She has lived experience within her own family and neighborhood and remembers a time when providers, policymakers, and researchers failed to approach substance use disorder with empathy and humility.

“Early in my career, it was common to describe people with high levels of unmet needs as frequent flyers, those managing substance use disorder as addicts, and community members navigating transitional living as the homeless,” Cronin explains. “There was a time when society criticized those who treated substance use disorder and overdose with medications.” Cronin celebrates that attitudes have shifted, language is less stigmatizing, and therapeutic interventions are not one-size-fits-all.

Spark has been an epidemiologist for 14 years. Eleven years ago, she worked at a local health department in Colorado that launched one of the first collective action opioid advisory groups that brought together leaders from local law enforcement agencies, methadone treatment centers, hospitals, schools, syringe exchange program, the district attorney’s office, and others to start working together on the issue. “While groups started far apart in how they perceived the issue,” Spark notes, “people were at least open to the conversation and hearing other perspectives. At a recent national conference, I was amazed at how far these diverse groups have come in working together and communicating to share knowledge, heartache, and inspiration to keep the work moving.”

Projects That Improve Lives

“The overdose landscape continues to change over time, but from our perspective, the understanding and compassion for people whose lives are challenged by substance use and drug availability have grown,” says Spark. She adds that Westat works with clients on a number of studies to gain an understanding of the personal, social, and economic conditions that increase the risk of opioid use disorder.

• Maternal Opioid Misuse (MOM)
• Academy for Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care (AHRQ Academy)
• National Hospital Care Survey (NHCS)
• Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN)

The data from these studies can inform solutions for treatment and recovery to improve health outcomes and save lives.