Preventing Opioid Overdose Mortality in the United States

We conducted a randomized controlled trial of SSPs throughout the United States (US) and US Territories. Prior to the trial, 342 SSPs were known to be operating throughout the US and US Territories. Our team launched a national survey of syringe services programs (NSSSP) in February 2019 of all known SSPs operating throughout the United States and its Territories, receiving a response from 263 (77%) SSPs. Among the responding SSPs, 94% were implementing overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND), and a total of 105 of SSPs implementing OEND were recruited into the trial. SSPs were randomized in a 1-to-1 fashion to either receive the OEND best practice recommendations (comparison SSPs) or the OEND best practice recommendations along with facilitation-based implementation strategies as detailed below (intervention SSPs).

We tested the effectiveness of a multifaceted, facilitation-based strategy at advancing OEND implementation effectiveness within SSPs. Implementation effectiveness is 'an organization-level construct that refers to the aggregated consistency, quality, and appropriateness of innovation use (OEND) within an organization (SSP).'

To be eligible, an organization must have: 1) met the definition of an SSP - an organization whose primary function is to distribute drug use supplies to participants to reduce harms associated with drug use, 2) implemented OEND for a minimum of 6 months, and 3) completed the national survey of syringe services programs fielded February-July 2019. We excluded organizations such as fire departments or emergency departments of hospitals that offered supply distribution since it would be an ancillary function of these organizations and OEND programs that were not part of a syringe services program.