Document Type
Portfolio
Publication Date
Fall 2025
Abstract
Goal Statement: The goal of this social change project is to prevent overdoses in Buncombe County, North Carolina. Significant Findings: Individuals experiencing polysubstance use within Buncombe County’s homeless population face an elevated risk of fatal and non-fatal overdoses. Contributing factors include co-occurring mental health disorders, unstable housing, and lack of harm reduction services (Khan et al., 2022; Lyons et al., 2019). In 2024, Buncombe County had one of the highest overdose rates throughout the state (North Carolina Overdose Epidemic Data | Division of Public Health, 2022). Key findings show the need for integrated, trauma-informed prevention efforts, including expanding dual-diagnosis programs, implementing Overdose Prevention Centers (OPCs), increasing access to Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), and advancing harm reduction and decriminalization initiatives to reduce stigma and improve treatment engagement (Cerdá et al., 2025; Neyra et al., 2024). Objectives/Strategies/Interventions/Next Steps: Key areas to focus on include expanding integrated dual-diagnosis programs, implementing Overdose Prevention Centers, enhancing access to MAT for incarcerated and recently released individuals, developing peer-led outreach to promote harm reduction among high-risk men, and advocating for state-level policy reform and community education to reduce stigma, expand naloxone distribution, and improve access to life-saving services.
