Public Health Responds to the Overdose Crisis
August 24, 2026 | Yaryna Onufrey, Victoria Pless, Jen Farfalla, Richa Ranade
Drug overdose affects every community in the United States, making it an urgent topic for communities and civic leaders. However, there is low awareness of public health’s role in overdose prevention — particularly the cross-sector coordination, data collection, and analytics that are critical to a targeted, effective response.
Working Together We Can Find Solutions
When civic leaders know about public health’s role in overdose prevention, it opens doors for:
- Forming multi-sector partnerships to jointly plan and coordinate efforts.
- Using data to drive effective prevention strategies.
- Launching public education campaigns to amplify reach.
- Accessing resources and treatment services for long-term recovery.
How These Materials Can Support Your Efforts
These materials are designed to support public health officials in communicating with audiences such as stakeholders, policymakers and government leaders, community organizations, health care systems, and academic collaborators:
- Clearly explain the role and value of public health in drug overdose prevention.
- Raise awareness of partnerships, success stories, and ongoing efforts.
- Highlight the importance of stable federal funding for state and local efforts.
Next Steps
The report, PowerPoint slides, and fact sheet can help:
- Read the report and review the supporting materials.
- Customize the slides to highlight your state or local data, partnerships, and success stories.
- Find opportunities such as advisory panel and board of commissioners meetings to share this information with partners to help them understand public health's role in overdose prevention and the value that this work brings to the community.
What's Included
If you have questions about these materials, please reach out to ASTHO at od2a@astho.org.
This work was supported by Cooperative Agreement Number 6 NU38PW000018-02-01, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.