Between 2019 and 2023, Norfolk had 541 overdose deaths. The dashboard maps them neighborhood by neighborhood, by drug type and by year, alongside the social determinants most strongly correlated with them, incarceration, SNAP receipt, and health-insurance coverage, and neighborhood health measures like diabetes, obesity, and frequent mental distress. Overdose victims are more likely to live in majority-Black neighborhoods with compounding socio-economic stressors.
The analysis was put to work siting naloxone vending machines: the locations originally proposed reached 127 overdose deaths within a 1.5-mile walking range, while the sites our model suggested reached 219. The dashboard also aggregates a survey of the city's opioid-response partners, showing which neighborhoods are served, and which have no services at all.
The dashboard is built on protected health information and cannot be shared. The underlying data and deliverables are internal to the partners.