Milwaukee County unveils new overdose dashboard
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — A new resource in Milwaukee County is bringing deeper insight into trends and intervention strategies for those struggling with drug abuse in our community.
County officials are calling it an Overdose Dashboard, and it's showing some good news - there's a significant decline in overdose deaths in Milwaukee.
The goal of the dashboard and gathering these statistics is to be able to more accurately identify vulnerable areas and groups of people in our community.
"Looking at where the hot spots are in the community, where is a vending machine going to have the most impact," said Ben Weston, chief health policy advisor for Milwaukee County.
On Tuesday, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) unveiled a new overdose dashboard.
"The data alone doesn't tell us if this decline is due to fewer overdoses or greater access to harm reduction supplies," said Executive Crowley.
However, it does tell us fewer people are dying from overdoses in our community.
"We have flooded the community with so much low-barrier access to Naloxone," said Dan Pojar, EMS division director at Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management.
According to OEM, the total number of confirmed overdoses in 2024 reached 450, and the total number of suspected non-fatal overdoses was 5,450.
"This is part of the conversation about how we need to break the stigma," said Crowley.
Ben Weston says while most age groups have seen a decline in overdoses, there's been a significant increase in Black men aged 55 to 79.
"Digging into the dashboard and using it this way is how community-based interventions can be developed," said Weston.
Between a pair of federal cases that were settled with opioid defendants, Milwaukee County recovered a combined $102 million in 2021 and 2023. Still, only a small portion of that money is funding the overdose dashboard.
"The money is going toward the harm reduction vending machines, our EMS systems, and getting more harm reduction supplies out there; it's going toward getting buprenorphine into the field," said Weston.
OEM says there's still a long way to go in stopping overdose deaths, but this will at least help them be able to properly allocate resources where they are needed most.