Mission Statement
The Michigan Overdose Fatality Review Program will prevent drug overdose deaths by examining case-specific underlying circumstances involved, actively seeking feedback from those with lived experience, increasing connections between professionals serving individuals and families affected by substance use, and providing data-driven recommendations to stakeholders at the community, state, and national levels.
About Overdose Fatality Review (OFR)
Overdose Fatality Review (OFR) teams are multidisciplinary and include individuals who can share information about a decedent or contribute to the analysis of available data to make recommendations that will prevent future overdose deaths.
- OFRs increase members’ understanding of area agencies’ roles and services as well as the community’s assets and needs, substance use and overdose trends, current prevention activities, and system gaps.
- OFRs increase the community’s overall capacity to prevent future overdose deaths by leveraging resources from multiple agencies and sectors to increase system-level response.
- OFRs continually monitor local substance use and overdose death data, as well as recommendation implementation activities. Status updates on recommendations are shared at each OFR team meeting and with a governing committee, reinforcing accountability for action.
Overdoses impact a variety of communities; therefore, OFRs should include a diverse group of individuals spanning different agencies and disciplines representing the community.
How We Came To Be
The Michigan Public Health Institute’s Center for Child and Family Health (CCFH) has spent over 20 years working on fatality review and prevention, primarily with the Michigan Child Death Review Program that started in 1995. This program now spans all 83 counties in Michigan, with the overarching goal of preventing future fatalities, as well as improving death scene investigations, and the delivery of services to families and communities. While Overdose Fatality Review (OFR) and Child Death Review (CDR) are not identical, all fatality review processes aims to prevent fatalities, identify system-level gaps, and tailor recommendations for policy and practice changes.
Our First Overdose Fatality Review Pilot
In 2020, MPHI received funding from the Michigan Overdose Data to Action (MODA) grant, and with additional funding from Vital Strategies in 2021, MPHI began to develop pilot OFR teams in Michigan. Throughout 2020, we reviewed best practices and connected with those already conducting OFRs across the country. Through relationships built in CDR, we were able connect with individuals in Muskegon at the Medical Examiner’s office, and those involved in substance use prevention to pilot an OFR team in September 2021. We disseminated an interest survey in Muskegon, conducted a kick-off meeting, provided training for team members, and initiated monthly reviews. In each monthly OFR meeting, information around one deidentified decedent was discussed for an hour and a half. These pilot reviews led to the identification of system gaps from which recommendations for change were developed. An infographic was created depicting these recommendations, which was shared with the team and local Opiate Taskforce. The pilot OFR team in Muskegon continues to increase their membership, ensuring that all relevant agencies are at the table to help move their recommendations forward.
For more information you can visit the OFR website at www.michiganofr.org