Objective:  Healthy CT 2020 objective is to reduce drug overdose related incidents by 10% by year 2020.

What is Drug Overdose?: A drug overdose is defined as taking an excessive amount of drug which will result in harmful effects on body functions. A person can overdose on prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, or illegal drugs. Drug overdoses can be either accidental or intentional. An overdose may lead to serious medical complications and the severity of the drug overdose depends on the type of drug, amount taken, and the physical and medical history of an individual. National and State of Connecticut data shows that during the past few years, there has been a dramatic increase in drug overdose related deaths, particularly with opioid-related drugs. Currently, misuse and addiction to opioids including prescription pain relievers, heroin and synthetic opioids is a serious national crisis which is affecting the public health. 

Graph: Drug overdose related mortality rate in Connecticut was calculated per 100,000 people. A line chart displaying the rate of drug overdose-related deaths for the years 2013 to 2019 and during this period the mortality rates have steadily increased from 2013 to 2019. In year 2013, the mortality rate was at 13.8, which gradually increased to 33.6 in year 2019. Drug overdose mortality rate increased by 18% in 2019 compared to the previous year 2018.

Data Source: Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Connecticut

Data updated by CT OCME 6/3/2020.

Potential Partners

Connecticut Department of Public Health; Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services; Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection; Connecticut Department of Veterans’ Affairs; Connecticut Department of Social Services; Connecticut Poison Control Center; Commission on Children; Office of the Child Advocate; state and local substance abuse prevention service providers; local public health agencies; emergency medical services; hospitals; pharmacists and other health care providers; health professional associations; community service providers for families, youth, and seniors; organizations and coalitions focused on prevention of injury and poisonings; and others.

Policy: Improve surveillance and understanding of circumstances surrounding poisoning deaths by securing an enforceable legislative mandate that requires reporting of all poisonings to the poison center.

Surveillance: Improve surveillance and understanding of circumstances surrounding poisoning deaths by creating a legislatively mandated death review panel for all decedents who are suspected to have died by poisoning. The purpose of the panel is to look for systems changes and lessons learned from these deaths in order to inform prevention, training, policy, and surveillance. The panel will include co-chairs with toxicology expertise from the poison center and the medical examiner’s office. Other members might have expertise in suicide, older adults, children, substance abuse, and mental health to name a few.

Education and Training: To educate healthcare providers, community health systems and local health departments by providing informed system changes with regards to high risk groups. Training emergency physicians and care managers in cooperation with primary care physicians to set up an individualized care plans for patients who were flagged as drug-seekers, will reduce the drug overdose related deaths. Patient education should contain information about overdose risk factors, how to avoid drug overdose, how to recognize and respond to an overdose. By providing patients with faster access to more supportive treatment, delivered in a more integrated way will result in hospital emergency visits related to opioid addictions. Patients will have significantly improved experiences because of new follow-up treatment programs, expanded community support and through education about impact of drug addiction on daily life. Train death scene investigators in issues and investigatory techniques pertinent to prescription opioids, diversion, and other poisoning trends.

CT DPH is working closely with its partners to carry out multiple activities necessary to achieve the goal of reducing drug overdose related incidents in communities. In order to reach our goal a number of strategies can be implemented and executed such as:

1. Reducing the number of Prescription Drugs in the communities: Enhancing and maximizing Connecticut's Prescription Monitoring Program will result in reduced number of prescriptions and also "doctor shopping". Doctors will be encouraged to register with prescription monitoring program data base and review the patient's prescription activity.

2. Pain Management for Patients: Medical providers will undertake special training on pain management for patients. Prescribers can also provide treatment with buprenorphine or methadone in combination with behavioral therapies for patients who meet criteria for opioid use disorder.

3. Implementing community health system interventions: By Collaborating with local health departments we can increase the outreach and education programs to providers on proper use of prescription data which will result in reduced number of prescriptions written by physicians. To keep updated with local health departments, regular bi-monthly meetings will be conducted to discuss the progress and provide them with data reports of overdose incidents in their area.

4. Educating Communities about Consequences of Drug Overdose: In collaboration with DMHAS and DCP, CT DPH will educate and reach out to communities via a social marketing campaign targeting substance abuse, prescription misuse and overdose prevention and intervention activities. Communities can receive the message through Billboards, Radio, Television and Social Media. 

5. Safe Drug Disposal: Efforts will be made to increase the awareness in communities about safe disposal of excessive and unused prescription drugs.

6. Saving Lives With Naloxone: Education will be provided to people about the availability of Naloxone for higher risk populations.

7. Access To Drug Overdose Information: By providing the information to public on website www.drugfreect.org about drug overdoses and other resources.