Public Health Madison & Dane County

Substance Use Prevention

Two people standing in front of a table with a display poster.

Alongside coalitions, agencies, communities, and policy makers, we work to reduce the impact of substance use and substance use disorders through prevention, harm reduction, and health promotion.

Reducing Drug Harm

  • Dane County Overdose Fatality Review

    We coordinate the Dane County Overdose Fatality Review, which works to understand how overdoses are happening in our area and make systemic changes. Our annual report, Drug Overdose Deaths in Dane County, includes data, recommendations, and action steps to prevent future drug overdose deaths.

    • Looking for data? Check out our latest report or email us.
    • Looking for supplies or training? Send us an email and we’ll get back to you!

  • Overdose Spike Alerts

    We track hospital and ambulance data to look for unexpected spikes in drug-involved overdoses. If we see a spike, we send out an alert. Our alerts give as much detail as we can to prevent overdose deaths.

    Sign up for overdose spike alerts:

    Emails

    Texts

  • Safer Drug Use Supplies

    We provide free supplies in a non-judgmental space for safer drug use to reduce infections and prevent overdoses.

Preventing Initiation of Tobacco Use

We work with the Dane County Alliance Against Commercial Tobacco toward a county free from tobacco related death and disease.

What we do

See Dane County tobacco sales data on the Wisconsin WINS website.

Want to know how young people across Dane County feel about vaping, alcohol, and other drugs and how they affect their lives, families, and communities? Teens drop their truth in our report Youth Voices.

Join the Dane County Alliance Against Commercial Tobacco (DC AACT)!

Read Wisconsin’s Smoke-free air law.

Reducing Alcohol Harm

We work with community partners to reduce the impact of alcohol misuse on our community.

What we do

  • We work to prevent youth and young adults from misusing alcohol.
  • We promote strategies to reduce long-term health conditions from excessive drinking.
  • We work with law enforcement and bars to prevent impaired driving, alcohol-related injuries, deaths by reducing overserving, and promoting access to safe rides.
  • We educate and advise on issues related to alcohol retailer licensing and zoning.
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