Oneida County Launches Online Overdose & Drug Trend Dashboard

The Oneida County Opioid Task Force and its Overdose Response Team have launched a public-facing data dashboard that tracks key information pertaining to drug overdoses and trends in Oneida County.

“This dashboard will help the public remain aware of overdoses and drug trends occurring throughout our community, and demonstrate to people that the opioid crisis and other emerging drug threats are far from over,” said Oneida County Executive, Anthony J. Picente Jr. “I believe that when you’re dealing with any public health issue—whether it’s the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid crisis, or any number of other issues—innovation, expediency, and transparency are key to saving lives, and that’s what we’re hoping to achieve here. We are thankful for our collaborative partnership with the Mohawk Valley Crime Analysis Center, local law enforcement agencies and other community partners supporting the implementation of this milestone in data and information sharing.”

The dashboard—which can be accessed here—will be updated on a weekly basis and contains near-real-time information such as weekly overdose counts, fatalities, demographic and geographic data, naloxone administration data, interactive maps and other relevant data points.

It supports one of the primary objectives of the Bureau of Justice Assistance and Centers for Disease Control grant which was awarded to Oneida County in 2019. A central aim of the grant is to enhance the capacity of the county’s Overdose Response Team to collect, share, and analyze near-real-time drug trend data to provide a richer understanding of the local drug environment and its impact on the health, safety and well-being of the community.

The Oneida County Overdose Response Team is a subgroup of the Oneida County Opioid Task Force and was established to monitor drug overdose data and emerging drug trends in Oneida County, with the goal of reducing the total number of overdoses and fatalities.

The team uses a platform known as ODMAP (Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program), which provides near real-time suspected overdose surveillance data across jurisdictions to support public safety and public health efforts to mobilize an immediate response to a sudden increase, or spike in overdose events. It also collaborates with local agencies to deploy peer recovery specialists to overdose victims and harm reduction outreach teams to targeted geographic areas.