Education & Training

vpc training series

UPCOMING INSTALLMENTS

Addressing the Opioid Overdose Epidemic via Community, Law Enforcement and Research Collaborations

When: Monday, January 27, 2025, 2-3pm Where: Halton Reading Room, Atkins Library

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Details below.

Daniel J. Flannery, PhD: Dr. Flannery is the Dr. Semi J and Ruth Begun Professor and Director of the Begun Center for Violence Prevention, Research and Education at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. A licensed clinical psychologist, he is also professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at CWRU School of Medicine and Case University Hospitals of Cleveland. Dr. Flannery was named a Distinguished University Professor at CWRU in 2023 and a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare in 2023. He is co-editor of the Cambridge Handbook of Violent Behavior and Aggression (2007 and 2018) and co-author of Preventing Bullying through Science, Policy and Practice (2016) for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Summary: Opioid overdose remains a severe public health crisis in the U.S., with Ohio consistently ranking among the top states for overdose fatalities—initially with heroin in 2014, and now with fentanyl and its analogues in 2024. This presentation reviews efforts in Cuyahoga County, OH, starting in 2014 with NIJ support, focusing on toxicology coding and the work of the Heroin Involved Death Investigation (HIDI) team. Early findings emphasized the need for scene integrity to trace drugs to their sources, strengthening investigations and prosecutions. These initiatives later gained BJA funding to establish a data subcommittee with the county Medical Examiner under the US Attorney’s Heroin-Opiate Task Force, now in its sixth year.

Further developments include CDC support through the Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) program, which emphasizes prevention, surveillance, and linking non-fatal cases to treatment. OD2A involves 14 community partners, including public health, law enforcement, hospitals, peer support groups, and treatment providers. Other efforts include a pilot study with 89 interviews, partnerships with Ohio’s UMADAOP groups, and a new state-funded Center of Excellence on Substance Use Disorders. Dr. Flannery will share findings and the Begun Center’s role in these initiatives, illustrating the importance of cross-system partnerships in addressing the opioid crisis.

Learning Objectives: By the end of this session, learners will be able to: 

  1. Discuss how surveillance can inform effective community-based prevention and intervention.
  2. Identify strategies to reduce fatal and non-fatal overdose.
  3. Understand how public safety- public health partnerships can be utilized to effectively address the opioid overdose epidemic.

Who might benefit from attending?

This training is applicable to any students, researchers, practitioners or other community collaborators who are working to address the opioid overdose epidemic and its related morbidities. The Begun Center is working with local and federal law enforcement, hospital systems, the county Medical Examiner, EMS, peer support organizations, community treatment providers, city and county public health departments, and the county board of Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health, among others, in these initiatives.

Past Installments