This publication highlights the success of an overdose fatality review (OFR) team in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.
This paper describes the evolution of overdose fatality review (OFR) teams made up of public health and public safety officials who conduct death reviews in order to identify overdose prevention and intervention strategies. The paper focuses on a new team in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, funded by a grant from the Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program (COSSAP). The team leveraged collaborations with OFR partners nationwide and shared current data and evidence-based practices with public health and public safety stakeholders in the jurisdiction, synthesizing Lackawanna County’s efforts behind a proactive approach. By prompting the county’s district attorney and the mayor of its largest city to call for the decriminalization of test strips to counter skyrocketing use of fentanyl, this OFR team showed itself to be the go-to vehicle for real-time, data-driven action in response to drug use trends in Lackawanna County. In so doing, the OFR team’s recommendations not only stood to save lives, but also presented a template for community responses everywhere.