Fall 2022 Guidance Document for OTF (from the Leadership Team) - updated September 29, 2022

Collaboration Agreement (Charter) - updated August 31, 2022

Roster (list of OTF members & workgroups) - if you notice someone missing, please let us know! 

Menu of Evidence-Based Strategies Summary Document - shared at the August 15 meeting

Note about meetings: any handouts, slides, or recordings are linked in each agenda.

Running meeting minutes/agendas for meetings after 8/15/22

August 15, 2022

July 18, 2022

June 22, 2022

May 4, 2022

About the HEALing Communities Study

The HEALing Communities Study (HCS) is a multi-site implementation research study which investigates how tools for preventing and treating opioid use disorder and overdose are most effective at the local level.

The study tests the impact of the Communities That HEAL (CTH) intervention, an integrated set of evidence-based practices across health care, behavioral health, criminal justice, and other community-based settings. The goal of the study is to reduce opioid-related overdose deaths by 40% over the course of three years. Research institutions (Columbia University, University of Kentucky, Boston Medical Center, and Ohio State University) are partnering with 67 communities highly affected by the opioid crisis in four states (New York, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Ohio) to measure the impact of these efforts. Cortland County is one of 16 communities in NYS. In New York, a research team from Columbia University is managing the research project.

Project Timeline–waves

The study is being conducted in two “waves” and communities are separated into urban and rural. Wave 1 communities just finished receiving the study intervention, and Wave 2 communities started intervention in July 2022. Wave 2 communities will benefit from lessons learned in Wave 1 and give the researchers a way to compare outcomes. Cortland County is a Wave 2 community. 

Study Intervention–Communities That HEAL (CTH)

The HEALing Communities Study Research Team–along with a local County Implementation Team–will support Cortland community partners to implement the Communities That HEAL intervention. The intervention seeks to promote a common vision, shared goals, and tailored strategies to mobilize communities to adopt evidence-based practices. The intervention will use a stepwise community change process with three components:

• Community-engaged data-driven decision making

• A “menu” of evidence-based strategies (called the Opioid Reduction Continuum of Care Approach (ORCCA))

• Three community-based communication campaigns

The evidence-based strategies on the ORCCA menu fall into three categories:

• Overdose prevention education and naloxone distribution

• Effective delivery of Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD)

• Safer opioid prescribing and dispensing

Anticipated Outcomes 

Again, the primary expected outcome from participation in the HEALing Communities Study is a 40% reduction of opioid overdose deaths over three years. However, the study also recognizes the importance of the social and material contexts in which overdoses happen, which means we can expect some other outcomes as well:

• Increased numbers of providers treating opioid use disorder with MOUD including buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone

• Increased numbers of people accessing MOUD and other drug treatment

• Increased number of people and community-based organizations trained to administer naloxone and provide overdose education

• Reduced number of non-fatal overdoses

• Increased identification of people with opioid use disorder

• Reduction in number of people progressing to opioid use disorder

What the HCS means for Cortland County–The Healing Cortland Project

Because many of these services and resources already exist in the Cortland Area, a key part of this project will be identifying, strengthening, and expanding the work our community is already doing. Together, community partners examine local data about opioid use, overdose deaths, and related services to choose how to allocate money and training to save lives and improve outcomes in our community. Participating in the research study gives Cortland access to resources like money, training, infrastructure, and the experience of several counties that have already implemented this intervention.

Opioid Task Force

The Opioid Task Force is the group that makes decisions about what happens locally. This is a diverse group of healthcare providers, service agencies, county leaders, and people with current or past lived experience of opioid use. The Opioid Task Force will be the ones to look at local data, study the evidence-based strategies, decide what will work best for Cortland, and how to allocate money and other resources to implement those strategies in a meaningful and sustainable way.

The Healing Cortland Project refers to these local efforts to reduce opioid overdose deaths and build up existing networks, resources, and services in sustainable ways. This way we have a name to distinguish what we’re doing from the research study (HCS) or the intervention they’re testing (CTH). We hope that the Healing Cortland Project will exist long after the HEALing Communities Study is over. 

The HEALing Communities Study also funds three full-time staff positions in Cortland County, housed in Cortland Area Communities That Care (CACTC). This is the County Implementation Team, and consists of a Project Director, a Data Surveillance Coordinator, and a Community Engagement Coordinator, who all work closely with the Director of Community Services (Sharon MacDougall).