REDUCE STIGMA
Make your organization a judgment-free zone that supports people with opioid use disorder throughout their recovery.
ENCOURAGE TREATMENT
Remove treatment barriers and improve access to care so people can get the help they need.
PROVIDE NALOXONE TO REVERSE OPIOID OVERDOSES
Save lives by stocking naloxone at your organization and training staff to use it in the event of an opioid overdose.
The materials below were developed to help coalitions prepare, plan, and implement each of the four campaigns. Coalitions were provided with “core” campaign assets that could be tailored with local “faces and places.” These assets included digital products that could be used as paid advertisements or social media placements, and two formats of print materials that could be used in paid advertising, direct distribution in the form of flyers or palm cards in specific venues, or placement in locations around the community. Each community could adapt these materials to other formats as they chose.
Campaign Playbooks
A set of eight topical campaign "playbooks" provide practical campaign implementation tips from media and campaign distribution planning to sustainability planning and practices.
How to Build Relationships with Your Local Media
How to hold brief, structured meetings with media representatives to build an effective and respectful relationship with them.
DownloadHow to Create Your Communication Campaign’s Distribution Plan
Develop distribution or promotion plans to get campaign messages more effectively in front of the people you care about most.
DownloadHow to Pitch, Place, and Leverage Op-Eds, Letters to the Editor, and Alternative Digital Content
Plan, draft, and submit print and digital content to the media that draws their attention to your work.
DownloadHow to Plan and Organize Your Communications Around Key Topics and Events
Using a Campaign Calendar to Organize Your Community's Activities
DownloadHow to Assess Campaign Progress in Communities and Identify Potential Enhancements
Ideas and tools to regularly assess campaign implementation and activities among your coalition and partners.
DownloadHow to Create Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Video and Audio Materials
Best practices for creating materials to share through social media, websites, community presentations, and radio or TV public service announcements.
DownloadBuilding Sustainable Opioid Overdose Communications Beyond HCS
The HCS identified seven critical steps to help communities sustain communication efforts once funding for an intervention ends.
DownloadCommunications 101
Navigating the Fundamentals Post-HCS. How to transition ownership of campaign messaging and resources to local platforms, and secure funding for continued communication work.
DownloadMessage Guidance
The following Message Guidance documents helped HCS community coalitions develop their own campaign materials, including video testimonials of people in recovery, newspaper editorials, radio scripts, social media posts, and talking points for television coverage featuring local news or human interest stories. Each guidance document ensured that materials and activities presented a consistent, evidence-based message. The guidance is based on formative research with campaign audiences and best practices in health communication.
Media Backgrounders
During the HCS campaigns, we used these backgrounders to ensure coalitions members and spokespersons delivered consistent and evidence-based messages about study activities when speaking with the media.
HCS Clear Communications Tip Sheets
The Clear Communications Tips sheets provide information on plain language and clear communication standards, readability calculators, how to select suitable imagery, and how to avoid triggering or stigmatizing language.
Tipsheets
DownloadOrganizational Toolkit
The Organizational toolkit describes the various ways that businesses, faith-based organizations, schools and universities, nonprofits, and other community-based organizations can provide valuable support to prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts in their communities.
Toolkit For Preventing Opioid Overdoses At Your Organization
A Practical Guide for Employers, Community Leaders, and Faith Leaders
DownloadPublications
Frkovich J, Hedrick H, Anakaraonye AR, Bornkessel A, Lefebvre RC. Opioid-related public health communication campaigns: An environmental scan. American Journal of Health Promotion. 2022 Jul;36(6):913-919. doi: 10.1177/08901171221082471. Epub 2022 Apr 1. PMID: 35365055
Lefebvre RC, Chandler RK, Helme DW, Kerner R, Mann S, Stein MD, Reynolds J, Slater MD, Anakaraonye AR, Beard D, Burrus O, Frkovich J, Hedrick H, Lewis N, Rodgers E. Health communication campaigns to drive demand for evidence-based practices and reduce stigma in the HEALing communities study. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2020 Dec 1;217:108338. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.108338. Epub 2020 Oct 5. PMID: 33152673; PMCID: PMC7534788.
Stein, M.D., Krause, C., Rodgers, E., Silwal, A., Helme, D., Slater, M., Beard, D., Lewis, N., Luster, J., Stephens, K., & Lefebvre, C. (2023). Lessons learned from developing tailored community communication campaigns in the HEALing Communities Study, Journal of Health Communication, 28:10, 699-705, doi: 10.1080/10810730.2023.2262948