N.O.R.T.H. Star
“Navigating Opioid Response Through Harm Reduction”
The NORTH Star project aims to reduce overdose fatalities through increased overdose education training and saturation of naloxone across the state of Missouri.
NORTH Star is funded through the Missouri Department of Mental Health and Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services through the support of Opioid Settlement funds recently award in 2021. These funds have been provided to our team to help with coordinating a state wide “hub” for naloxone distribution across the state of Missouri.
This project focuses on the following objectives:
Ensure community saturation of naloxone and fentanyl test strips across Missouri
Increase knowledge about overdose prevention, recognition, and response, including how to use naloxone
Decrease stigma toward people who use drugs through education of harm reduction
Create infrastructure and long-term sustainability of naloxone distribution networks
Goals of this project will be reached through the following activities:
Community Saturation of Naloxone Distribution
Targeted and expanded community street outreach by people with lived experience to people who use drugs in the highest need areas
Identifying new community sectors and points of distribution for naloxone including, but not limited to, jails, Children’s Division, health departments, hospitals, drop-in centers, recovery centers, and crisis response programs
Increasing understanding of fatal and non-fatal overdoses to help inform distribution and outreach efforts through data-informed decision making
Expanding mail-based naloxone efforts to reach more rural communities
Expansion of Overdose education training programs and resource information
Expansion of OEND trainers with lived experience across the state who are able to provide training to community members and organizations
Increasing OEND training completion by law enforcement and first responders, as well as targeted outreach to more first responder organizations and health departments
Dissemination of resource guides and educational materials around harm reduction, treatment, and recovery resources to individuals and organizations
Providing technical assistance, infrastructure support, and capacity building to organizations
Assisting new partnerships with development of protocols and practices to set up naloxone distribution and training programs
Support existing partnerships with maintenance and expansion of current naloxone distribution efforts
Developing new curriculum to meet the specific needs of organizations and community members in supporting people who use drugs
Ensuring dissemination of evidence-based information around drug use, overdose risk, and harm reduction
Develop plan for scaling and long-term support for ongoing statewide distribution efforts