North Austin News

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin Public Health (APH) has published a new dashboard that will help community members access and view data on opioid overdoses. These efforts are part of preventing new overdoses – and especially deaths.

“This dashboard is part of an ongoing commitment by Austin Public Health and community partners to prevent the incidence of opioid-related overdoses and deaths, especially for populations at higher risk,” said Austin-Travis County Health Authority Dr. Desmar Walkes. “By giving the public facts about the number of opioid overdoses in our community as well as the distribution of Naloxone and Narcan, we can raise awareness of how opioid overdoses are ravaging our families, friends, neighbors and loved ones, hopefully leading to greater action to help prevent overdoses.”

Following Resolution #20220616-053, APH held meetings with various stakeholders, community partners, consultants and departments within the City of Austin. Following these meetings, staff created a comprehensive data dashboard with helpful visualization tools.

"Starting with data is one of the key components of the resolution along with expanding naloxone-based interventions, training first responders and city departments with medical-assisted treatment options and developing a local plan of action that prioritizes prevention strategies and support services for substance use disorders,” said District 2 Council Member Vanessa Fuentes.

The dashboard covers important opioid overdose data in Austin and Travis County, including:

• Non-fatal opioid overdoses
• Non-fatal opioid overdose hospitalizations
• Fatal opioid overdoses
• Naloxone/Narcan distribution from Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services, Austin Public Health, and Travis County Health and Human Services
• Naloxone/Narcan administration, as reported by Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services
• Numbers of patients treated in the Buprenorphine Bridge Program (BBP)

The data represented in the dashboard is gathered from sources including:

• Austin/Travis County EMS (ATCEMS)  
• Texas Syndromic Surveillance (TxS2) 
• Texas Hospital Inpatient Discharge Public Use Data File, Texas Department of State Health Services
• Travis County Health and Human Services 
• Travis County Medical Examiner 

You can view the opioid overdose dashboard here.

To learn more about how you can recognize and prevent opioid overdoses, please visit www.one-dose.org.

Original source can be found here.