The HEALing Communities Study engaged local community members in every stage of the research process, from the planning and coalition building stages to implementation and evaluating successes. Many community partners, including health care providers, behavioral health specialists, business owners, law enforcement officials, civic leaders, and people living in recovery and their families, rose to the challenge of reducing opioid overdose deaths in their communities.
Engaging community members in our research ensured that overdose-reduction strategies matched their needs, values, and goals. This page provides guidance on how to take a community-led approach in selecting and carrying out overdose reduction practices in your community.
In the HEALing Communities Study (HCS), researchers developed data dashboards to support evidence-based decision-making in reducing opioid-related overdoses. This webinar discusses their development, implementation, and best practices for sustaining them, along with tools and standardized measures for data collection.
Courtesy of HEAL Connections
The research knowledge produced from this study belongs to everyone – not just researchers, coalition members, government officials, and study organizers, but anyone who wants to play an important role in ending opioid overdoses in their community.
Learn MoreThis guide provides tips and tools for building and maintaining a community coalition that focuses on reducing opioid overdose deaths.
Learn MoreHow a community listening tour helped build a diverse and representative coalition committed to reducing overdose deaths in Jefferson County, Kentucky.
DownloadEngaging People with Lived Experience of Opioid Use through Photovoice in Belchertown and Ware, Massachusetts.
DownloadUtilizing a readiness assessment and coalition membership checklist to build and engage a coalition that aligns with the community's priorities, experience, and capacity for opioid overdose prevention in Rochester, New York.
DownloadHow can you help? One simple way you can play a role in ending the overdose crisis is sharing information about the HCS study with your community. Please post on social channels using the hashtag #healingtogether.