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2023 Summit Evolution of the Hamilton County Overdose Fatality Review
Hamilton County Public Health Overdose Fatality Review Agenda
- What is the OFR
- Ohio Legislation for OFRs
- Hamilton County OFR Partners
- Hamilton County OFR growth and improvements
- New data partners and participants
- Including first responders and criminal justice
- Engagement and follow-up Learning Objectives
- Demonstrate the importance of first responder participation in fatality reviews
- Identify first responder and criminal justice partners that could be added to fatality reviews
- Analyze current fatality review structure to determine areas for improvement and better collaboration What is the OFR
- Overdose Fatality Reviews look at the circumstances surrounding the death of a person who died form a drug overdose
- In Ohio, OFRs are county initiatives
- The goal is to find where changes can be made to prevent future loss of life from an overdose Ohio Revised Code
- Legislation passed in September of 2021
- ORC Section 307.631 – 307.639
- Brought legal support and data sharing laws for overdose fatality reviews
- Set requirements for core members
- Public Health – convener
- Coroner or Medical Examiner
- Mental Health Board
- Board Certified Physician
- Law enforcement – Sherriff or Chief of Police Hamilton County OFR Partners
- Hamilton County Public Health
- Hamilton County Coroner’s Office
- Hamilton County Sherriff
- Hamilton County Drug Taskforce/Quick Response Team
- Hamilton County Mental Health Board
- Hamilton County Prosecutor and Clerk of Courts
- University of Cincinnati Health
- Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center (Poison Control Center)
- Hamilton County Job and Family Services
- Green Township Fire/EMS
- Colerain Township Fire/EMS
- Anderson Township Fire/EMS
- Hamilton County Adult Probation Where We Were
- OFR started in Hamilton County in 2016
- Large invite list, conversations lacked purpose and direction
- Engagement decreased followed by meeting attendance
- Were the right people at the table?
- Started a revamp process at the end of 2019
- COVID-19 delays in resuming meetings Where We Are
- Hired new OFR coordinator in 2021
- Changed meeting format
- Starting fresh and using new laws in Ohio
- New partners, smaller invite list, purposeful decisions on who joins
- Sticking with subject matter experts and those with case information or who can contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way Where We Are Cont.
- Continuously evaluating who should be at the table
- In 2022, hired a full time NOK interviewer to support the OFR
- Recent partner additions
- Anderson Twp Fire/EMS
- Probation Office
- Specific treatment providers OFR Partners
- Push to bring additional first responder and criminal justice partners to meetings
- Fire/EMS
- Information related to practices when responding to overdoses
- Identifying gaps in the community
- Ensuring different parts of jurisdiction are represented
- Clerk of Courts and Prosecutors Office
- Provide crucial criminal background information as well as court records OFR Partners Cont.
- Law Enforcement
- Heroin Taskforce
- Provides reports from death investigations
- Quick Response Team
- Information on interactions with decedents
- Unique perspective on criminal justice system and how decedents have interacted with it
- Probation
- Provides unique perspective for those on probation
- Information on court ordered treatment and housing Maintaining Engagement
- Crucial to keep members coming to meeting and feeling like it has been a valuable use of their time
- Twice per year meetings to share the recommendations that were developed along with programs or initiatives that have been implemented
- Finding champions for recommendations that have not been taken up
- Developing a dashboard for members to see the outputs of the
OFR
Going Forward
- Always looking to improve meetings and facilitation
- Continue to evaluate who is attending meetings
- Drive the message forward
- Seeing trends before they are widely known – gabapentin
- Focusing conversations and keeping conversations related to the cases being discussed
- Having to balance open discussion without getting too far off topic Questions?