SMART’s Program Coordinator, Jeremy Kourvelas, presented to the Tennessee Public Health Association (TPHA) on best practices relating to using local data to inform decisions, covering: common challenges with data collection and quality data-influenced policymaking frameworks data and the overdose crisis practical recommendations with examples from abating the overdose epidemic. This
Jefferson County Awarded for Their Spending Model Jefferson County was awarded Excellence in the Application of the Opioid Litigation Principles by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for using the following evidence-based principles in helping guide the effective spending of their settlement dollars: 1. Spend the Money to Save
Please join our regional substance use response consultants for free technical assistance and guidance on matters related to the opioid settlements during their quarterly office hours August 14, from 9-11 a.m. eastern/8-10 central. Register here for this free session. Cities and counties, please note that an important September reporting deadline
Click here to listen on Spotify A cop, a guitar company, and a public health analyst walk into a bar…and mount an opioid overdose first aid kit to the wall. We have covered the Training and Empowering Musicians to Prevent Overdose, or TEMPO, project before, specifically the effort to get
KEY POINTS In 2022, Tennessee decriminalized fentanyl test strips (FTS) through Public Chapter 764. Thousands have since been distributed by the state and nonprofit coalitions as a key harm reduction strategy. As of the end of 2023, 44 other states and D.C. had also decriminalized FTS. Research indicates that people
SMART’s Courtney Collier, our West Tennessee Substance Use Response Consultant, attended the inaugural meeting of the Madison County opioid abatement council and was interviewed by local media station WBBJ. The article and television clip can be viewed here. A slight correction, however: Courtney is incorrectly identified as part of UT
Click here to listen on Spotify According to the most recent report from the Tennessee Department of Health, two-thirds of all overdose fatalities are men, most of whom are aged 25-54. According to independent research, this group is also far more likely to lack health insurance. My guest this month
On May 21, the New York Times published an article titled “Has Fentanyl Peaked?” The premise is that the “opioid crisis…may finally be turning around” based on the fact that preliminary data from the CDC shows that drug overdose deaths slightly declined in 2023, now down to 107,543 estimated deaths
“One of his partners in that effort was Trevor Henderson, the former director of Metro Public Health’s Overdose Response Program who is now working as a substance use response consultant with the University of Tennessee’s SMART Initiative — or, Substance Misuse and Addiction Resource for Tennessee. A year or so
SMART’s Middle Tennessee substance use response consultant, Trevor Henderson, was honored by the Department of Justice with the 2024 Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement for his work in his previous role as the Director of the Opioid/Overdose Response and Reduction Program at the Nashville Metro Public Health Department. His
