Overdose Data
About These Data
The Milwaukee County Overdose Dashboard includes data on fatal overdoses from the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner and nonfatal overdose events from the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management. The dashboard includes geographic distribution, time trends and demographics among nonfatal and fatal overdose incidents.
Why These Data Are Important
The dashboard serves as a resource for community members, organizations and researchers working to reduce overdoses within the County, including the Milwaukee County Overdose Public Health and Safety Team (OD-PHAST). Understanding trends and differences between demographic groups across overdose events can aid in development of data-driven intervention and prevention strategies to reduce overdoses. Milwaukee County has seen nearly a 60 percent increase in overdose deaths from 2016 to 2020 with 545 deaths recorded in 2020, which reinforces the importance of the dashboard as a resource to support overdose reduction and prevention efforts across the county.
What Are We Doing About It
This collaborative effort aligns with the county’s strategic focus activity of breaking down silos across county government to maximize access to and quality of services offered. In Fall 2020, Milwaukee County, through the Medical Examiner’s Office and in partnership with Medical College of Wisconsin, was awarded a three-year grant through the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance in part to develop a multidisciplinary OD-PHAST with the goals of expanding the delivery and analysis of near real-time data between multiple partners and utilizing data to develop and implement strategies and recommendations for changes to reduce the likelihood of future overdose incidents. This initiative convenes numerous agencies, organizations, and existing efforts focused on overdose reduction and prevention in Milwaukee County. The team routinely reports progress through county-level bodies including the Milwaukee Community Justice Council and the City-County Heroin, Opioid, and Cocaine Task Force, among others.
The Milwaukee County Overdose Dashboard and visualizations were developed by a collaborative team of partners, including but not limited to: the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office, the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management, the Milwaukee County Department of Administrative Services, Information Management Services Division, the Medical College of Wisconsin, DataShare, the Wisconsin Department of Justice, and a representative of the Wisconsin Overdose Response Strategy team. The data work and dashboard development were funded in part by the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin (AHW) Endowment. In addition, this project was supported in part by Grant No. 2018-PM-BX-K101 and Grant No. 2020-AR-BX-0103 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the SMART Office. Points of view or opinions on this dashboard are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice or the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment.