West Virginia Overdose Prevention Funding

Overdose prevention funding - West Virginia

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 West Virginia is working to prevent overdose

Expansion of overdose training and outreach events

West Virginia partnered with harm reduction agencies to offer eight REVIVE! training and outreach events in localities across the state, training more than 300 individuals in naloxone administration and distributing more than 400 doses of naloxone. This Combating Overdose through Community-Level Intervention initiative, which emphasized partnerships between public health and harm reduction agencies, helped connect individuals to community resources and provided access to Trauma Informed Care that focused on Adverse Childhood Experiences and mental health first aid.

Pain management program implementation

West Virginia's Safe and Effective Management of Pain Program successfully integrated risk reduction strategies into its pain management treatment plans, both for cancer and non-cancer related pain. These risk reduction strategies have resulted in reductions of morphine requests.

Evaluation of non-fatal overdose notification system

West Virginia’s Board of Pharmacy evaluated the effectiveness of its suspected non-fatal overdose notification system. The evaluation found that prescribers who received an email about their patient’s suspected non-fatal overdose had statistically significant decreases in the total number of opioid prescriptions, total number of opioid doses (or pills) prescribed, as well as the average morphine milligram equivalents prescribed.