Incorporating a health equity lens is crucial to understand community needs, address disparities and develop equitable overdose prevention and response strategies. To better inform outreach and overdose response efforts, the Kansas Overdose Response Strategy (ORS) team integrated socioeconomic indicators and resource data into the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program (ODMAP) and Overdose Fatality Review (OFR) mapping tools by developing demographic layers. The OFR Tool enables users to visualize the proximity of these resources to overdose locations and generate infographics that highlight key socioeconomic data. This functionality has become integral to the OFR process in Reno County, KS, allowing the OFR review board to better understand the impact of social determinants on overdose outcomes and make more informed recommendations for improving community health and equity.

When the Illinois ORS team sought to address community needs and highlight disparities through enhanced data visualization, the team partnered with the KS PHA to adapt that work for IL to address needs by launching a social determinants of health overlay. The Illinois ORS team trained partners across the state to utilize six new updates and two new layers on ODMAP, including a naloxone saturation layer initially piloted in Chicago. With support from the Kansas PHA, the IL ORS team also added several additional layers to their data toolkit, such as locations of lodging facilities, gas stations, shelters, apartments and substance use and mental health services. These updates were shared through webinars for state partners, virtual presentations, in-person trainings and highlighted at the Illinois Prevention Summit, reaching 130 decision-makers across the state. Furthermore, the Illinois ORS team intends to launch a Data Academy with partners across the state where persons with lived and living experience will be trained to use the social determinants of health overlay to share their community’s story and guide their community’s decision-making process on where to prioritize efforts based on health equity. This initiative will elevate populations of focus to use data effectively, guiding community decisions and improving outcomes.