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Industry Perspective
With GIS, you can:
• Organize your data
• Collect new data in real time
• Communicate your findings
• Deploy tactics and allocate resources
• Inform decision makers
• Educate the public and constituents
That's why many government agencies are turning to GIS to
map, track and understand the scope of the opioid epidemic
in local communities.
It's clear why government needs a new approach. The
numbers are staggering and continue to climb. In 2016
alone, more than 64,000 people died from drug overdoses,
the majority of which were linked to opioids such as
oxycodone, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and the
illicit drug heroin. Additionally, in a single year, 12.5 million
people misuse prescription opioids while another 828,000
use heroin. Today, an average of 100 Americans die each
day from opioid overdoses.
That's led the federal government to declare the opioid crisis
a public health emergency. State and local governments are
also taking action to raise awareness around and combat
the issue of opioid addiction. Health and safety agencies are
dedicating resources to providing education, prevention and
treatment options in their communities.
But more must be done to effectively combat the rising
misuse of opioids. While one-off resources like prescription
drop-off locations or naloxone-dispensing overdose reversal
centers are a key first step, they must be strategically created
in areas of need. What's more, these resources must be
deployed in concert with other resources that combat both
the causes and symptoms of the opioid crisis.
In fact, what many local and state governments are
coming to realize is that treating a health crisis like the
opioid epidemic is no different than addressing any other
public safety emergency, such as a hurricane or wildfire.
Understanding the geography of the crisis in real time is
critical to effectively deploying resources and quelling the
escalation of problems.
To learn more about the crisis, GovLoop partnered with
Esri for this report about using GIS to tackle the opioid
epidemic. This report was informed by interviews with state
and local government leaders, as well as conversations with
thought leaders from Esri.
Read on to understand how a location-focused approach
can help public health, human services, and safety
organizations understand and combat the opioid crisis in
their communities. We'll explain the use-cases for GIS as
well as provide examples of how location-based strategies
are already being used to affect the opioid epidemic.
Executive Summary
Geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analysis have
become the number one tools in understanding and responding
to the opioid crisis. Integrating this analysis into your solution can
help you be more specific in your approach.
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Industry Perspective
This map shows drug poisoning deaths across
the country. Red areas represent places
where the drug poisoning rate is
very high whereas blue areas
represent locations that have
a relatively low drug
poisoning rate.
