WA DOH Injury and Violence Prevention Newsletter

Violence is a Major Public Health Problem

In the United States, seven people per hour die a violent death. The economic costs are staggering—with suicide costing the U.S. economy $57 billion and homicide $30 billion, and this is just the costs for medical care and lost work. Also, many Americans survive violent experiences and are left struggling with long-term physical, psychological, and emotional consequences. Violence erodes entire communities— reducing productivity, decreasing property values, disrupting social services, and making people feel unsafe in the places where they live, work, and learn.

The Drug Overdose Epidemic Continues to Worsen in the US

Drug overdose deaths continue to impact our nation and remain a leading cause of injury-related death in the United States. The majority of overdose deaths involve opioids. Deaths involving synthetic opioids (largely illicitly made fentanyl) and stimulants (such as cocaine and methamphetamine) have increased in recent years. In addition, overdose deaths have accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the worsening and expanding drug overdose epidemic in the United States involves potent synthetic opioids, often in combination with other drugs, timely and comprehensive surveillance and evidence-based prevention and response strategies remain essential.

National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS)

The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) began collecting data on violent deaths in 2002.

NVDRS covers all types of violent deaths—including homicides and suicides—in all settings and for all age groups. NVDRS includes over 600 unique data elements that provide valuable context about violent deaths such as:

· relationship problems;

· mental health problems and treatment;

· toxicology results;

· and life stressors, including recent problems with a job, finances, or physical health problems.

Extensive information about the incidents, such as weapons used, characteristics of suspects, and locations where they occurred are included. Such data are far more comprehensive than what is available elsewhere.

NVDRS data can be used to:

· Inform decision makers

· Education communities

· Develop and tailor violence prevention efforts

· Evaluate the impact of prevention programs

For further information on NVDRS, visit https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/nvdrs

State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS)

In 2016, the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS) began as part of CDC’s Enhanced State Opioid Overdose Surveillance (ESOOS) program, to provide comprehensive data on opioid overdose deaths. In 2019, SUDORS expanded to collect data on all drug overdose deaths in 47 states and the District of Columbia as part of CDC’s Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) program.

SUDORS collects data on unintentional fatal drug overdoses in 13 WA state counties and will be expanding statewide in September 2023.

The SUDORS team works with coroner and medical examiner partners to implement new ways to strengthen data quality. Data abstractors read, interpret, and abstract unintentional fatal drug overdose case reports daily to identify patterns, trends, and the circumstances around UUDO deaths in WA state. All data abstracted from the three source reports (CME/Autopsy/Toxicology) is de-identified.

The overall goals of SUDORS are to:

1. Better understand the circumstances that surround overdose deaths.

2. Improve overdose data timeliness and accuracy.

3. Identify specific substances causing or contributing to overdose deaths as well as emerging and polysubstance overdose trends to help inform overdose prevention and response efforts.

Washington’s SUDORS program is funded to collect data in a subset of Washington counties using multiple data sources, including: