Reduce Drug Harm & Violence
Our goal is for everyone in Madison & Dane County to be free of injury, trauma, and disease. One way to accomplish this is to reduce drug harm and violence in our community.
We work to ensure this by focusing on:
Tobacco & Nicotine-Free Living
We create community environments and policies to help people avoid the use of all types of tobacco and nicotine products, and support and promote quit tobacco efforts.
Why it Matters
- Smoking is a leading cause of preventable death and disease killing one in seven Wisconsinites.
- Programs that prevent kids from starting to use tobacco, help with quitting tobacco, and eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke, save lives and money.
What the Data Shows
- Adult smoking rates have decreased in the past five years but 17% of Wisconsin adults still smoke, and rates are even higher for people with low income and education levels.
- As conventional cigarette use falls, e-cigarette use is on the rise. E-cigarette aerosol has been found to contain tiny particles that include nicotine, heavy metals, and cancer causing chemicals.
Initiatives
We coordinate the Tobacco Free Dane County Coalition to prevent youth tobacco use, increase smoke and vape-free environments, promote quitting tobacco, reduce tobacco and nicotine sales to minors, and eliminate disparities in tobacco use.
Opioid Poisoning & Overdose Prevention
We are working with community partners to reduce opioid poisoning and overdose rates.
Why it Matters
Drug overdose death rates involving prescription pain medication and heroin in Dane County nearly doubled over the last decade.
What the Data Shows
- More than half of all opioid-involved hospital encounters and deaths involved heroin in 2016.
- 85 people died in Dane County in 2016 from opioids and there were over 400 opioid hospital encounters.
- Learn more: Heroin and Synthetic Opioids Data Brief
Initiatives to Reduce Opioid Poisoning & Overdoses
Examples of collaborative initiatives Public Health Madison & Dane County participates in include:
- Working to expand knowledge of drug overdose medication, make it more accessible, and provide overdose prevention training. One example of this is our Overdose Prevention video.
- Providing individuals using drugs and committing low level crimes related to their drug use, the opportunity for treatment rather than arrest through the Madison Addiction Recovery Initiative.
- Working with the African American Opioid Coalition to address the disparate impact of opioids on the African American community.
- Participating on the Dane County Coordinated Response to Stop the Drug Overdose Epidemic steering committee. The six strategy areas of focus for this group include: reduce access to drugs, reduce inappropriate prescription use, improve overdose intervention, substance abuse prevention, integrate mental health care, and early intervention, drug treatment and recovery.
Violence Prevention
We are working with local elected officials, including the Madison Mayor and Dane County Executive, government agencies, and community-based organizations to develop a public health approach for violence prevention in our community.
Our strategy is to stop violence before it starts by providing support and education before problems occur. This “upstream” approach includes promoting safe, stable, nurturing, healthy relationships and environments, addressing risk and protective factors, and building individual and community resilience.
Why it Matters
- Everyone deserves to feel safe in their home and community.
- Individuals who experience violence often suffer physical, mental and/or emotional health problems over their life course.
- Children who experience violence are more likely to become ensnared in a cycle of violence that leads to future violent behavior, including aggression, delinquency, violent crime and child abuse.
What the Data Shows
- 2017 produced the highest incidence rates of homicides seen in both Madison and Dane County.
- Violent behavior disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minorities and other disadvantaged groups.
- Local data and community partner interviews identify eight categories of violence for efforts to focus on: child abuse and neglect, youth violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, elder abuse, self-directed violence, structural violence, community violence.
Initiatives to Reduce Violence
Planning is currently in the early stages, but one of the first things to happen will be to engage community partners through the creation of a Violence Prevention Coalition. Its purpose will be to identify strategies that will work best in our community to decrease violence and prevent injury. The Coalition will be instrumental in determining an effective approach to prevent violence and injury and will involve multi-sector partners.