Facilitating community partnerships to reduce opioid overdose: An engaged department initiative

Background: The opioid crisis is a major public health priority for most United States communities and requires multi-disciplinary and multi-pronged approaches. Despite this, there is considerable unfulfilled potential for engagement of academic pharmacy with community partners to form mutually-beneficial relationships.

Objectives: This study sought to determine how an opioid-focused Engaged Department Initiative might increase partnerships with rural community members and positively impact faculty teaching, service, practice and research while addressing a critical public health crisis in northern Minnesota.

Methods: A multidisciplinary department at a College of Pharmacy participated in an 18-month Engaged Department Initiative focused on building community partnerships to address the opioid crisis in rural communities of northern Minnesota. This initiative included internal, departmental-specific components, as well as external components focused on meeting opioid-related needs in the community.

Results: This initiative resulted in statistically significant increases in faculty understanding of and appreciation for community engagement, as well as the creation of impactful community-led programming focused on prevention and intervention of opioid use disorder. The community partnerships that were formed and strengthened throughout the Engaged Department Initiative have led to continuing opioid-related engagement activities with an ever-increasing number of surrounding communities.

Conclusion: An Engaged Department process allowed one department to bring a higher level of attention to community engagement to the entire College of Pharmacy and to incorporate goals and initiatives related to community engagement into a new collegiate strategic plan.