Maine Overdose and Suicide Prevention Funding

Overdose prevention funding - Maine

There were 106,699 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2021 (32.4 deaths per 100,000 standard population), a 16% increase from 2020.1

*average award amount

Examples of how Maine is preventing overdose

Overdose prevention website enhancement

As part of an evidence-building pilot project, Maine developed a referral form on the knowyouroptions.me program website, which is a public facing, statewide overdose prevention resource. This new referral form now makes it easier for law enforcement and local emergency medical services (EMS) to effectively submit referrals to their Overdose Prevention Through Intensive Outreach Naloxone and Safety (OPTIONS) county liaison. The liaison, who is a behavioral health clinician, then works alongside first responders to support outreach, harm reduction, and linkage to care within their county.

Overdose spike alert systems

Maine successfully integrated emergency medical services (EMS) data into Overdose Map (ODMAP), resulting in a new statewide spike alert system. After the implementation of ODMAP alerts, Maine identified an additional need for timely alerts using emergency department (ED) data. Using ESSENCE, a syndromic surveillance system, Maine launched an ED spike alert pilot program. The state is now exploring ways to efficiently incorporate both EMS and ED data into one overdose spike alert system.

Substance Use Disorder Mobile Application

In Maine, a digital mobile application called the OD-ME provides easy to use educational information around overdose response, naloxone administration, and opioid awareness. This app received heavy promotion throughout the state via tailored digital and traditional media, as well as robust partnership efforts. Over 600 people downloaded the app, which led to at least 65 voluntarily reported, app-assisted overdose reversals.

Suicide prevention funding - Maine

Maine's suicide prevention priorities

Maine is preventing suicide with CDC Injury Center funding by:A

• Strengthening access and delivery of suicide care
• Promoting connectedness
• Identifying and supporting people at risk
• Lessening harms and preventing future risk
• Supporting near real-time surveillance

Some groups have higher rates of suicide than others. To address disparities, Maine is focusing on:

• Rural residents
• Adults 45 years of age and older
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth

Examples of how Maine is working to prevent suicide

Developing new definitions

Maine's ED-SNSRO team created a new syndrome definition for "non-suicidal self-harm" to better examine the problem of self-harm and differentiate from the more severe issue of suicide attempts. They are currently refining this definition through manual review of visits captured by the syndrome.

Establishing partnerships

To introduce ED-SNSRO to partners, Maine conducted a virtual presentation to about 20 groups from Maine government agencies and non-profit organizations, including the Office of Child and Family Services, the Office of Behavioral Health, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The presentation included an explanation of the ED-SNSRO project and the value it brings to suicide prevention, a broad overview of near real-time surveillance, a description of key players' roles, an explanation of the available data, and a review of potential data presentation formats. Following this presentation, the surveillance team created a weekly report displaying recent statewide trends in emergency department and emergency medical services visits related to suicide attempts and suicidal behaviors to provide timely information to community organizations to help inform their programmatic activities.