MADISON,WI— Overdose data in Wisconsin is being consolidated into one system that health and law enforcement agencies can use to help their municipalities.
The new system is called Wisconsin Suspected Overdose Alerts for Rapid Response [WISOARR] and has been released by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Michelle Haese, Director of Substance Abuse Initiatives for DHS leads the program and says all state-wide consolidated data can be used to help communities specify what actions plans can be used to confront overdoses occurring in towns and neighborhoods.
“Emergency and health services can see what is happening with drug trends if there are those suspected overdoses where they see a rise in those numbers- a spike- so to speak, they can work together to create teams and push out information to the public and prepare different agencies throughout their areas,” said Haese.
Data can be submitted anonymously through the public to report overdoses that have happened in their neighborhoods, helping both health and law enforcement agencies.
“This definitely can help have a better understanding of how many expected overdoses area occurring in their communities and also understand geographically a proximity of where it’s occurring,” said Haese. “So the data can help provide insight as where to distribute more naloxone to communities to help prevent further overdoses from taking place.”
WISOARR also provides Training and education materials on how to use the system to meet community response needs as well as resources and reactionary steps for partner agencies when an alert is issued.
