Professionals

Prescribers & Healthcare Professionals

Prescribers and healthcare professionals play a critical role in reducing opioid misuse. Here are some resources that may assist you in your efforts to end the opioid epidemic:

• Review opioid prescribing guidelines, model practices for safe prescribing, the Illinois Prescription Monitoring Program, and presentations on improving patient safety.
• Inform patients of safe disposal locations for unused, unwanted, or expired medications. Educate patients about how to safely store medications still in use.
• The Illinois Health and Hospital Association (IHA) recommends hospitals and health systems should have a method for providing naloxone to patients deemed at risk of developing opioid use disorder or their family members. Learn more by reviewing IHA’s Opioid Prescribing Guidelines: For Patients in the Emergency Department and Immediate Care Centers (PDF).
• Connect patients with opioid use disorder or their family members to community trainings through the DuPage Narcan Program.
• Learn how to remove stigma. Review resources from the American Medical Association that can help you understand, treat, and remove stigma in your practice and community. Additionally, you can review how words matter, and the Do’s and Don’ts of counseling patients with addiction (PDF) on page 18 of guidelines from the Colorado Chapter of American College Emergency Physicians.
• Review treatment and recovery resources that may be helpful to share with patients.
• For information about opioid prescribing statistics (and other opioid metrics) visit the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) opioid dashboard. Select DuPage on the map to get DuPage-specific counts.

Law Enforcement

• View information about the DuPage Narcan Program, and upcoming overdose prevention training events for first responders.
• Contact us if your facility is interested in becoming an RxBOX drug take back location.
• Learn more about the naloxone plus model, which provides support and follow-up to individuals after an opioid overdose.
• Stigma can keep people from seeking help and moving towards recovery. Learn how words matter when trying to reduce stigma (PDF).
• If you are interested in reducing youth substance use, join the Prevention Leadership Team.

School Administrators & Teachers

• Several schools currently participate in the DuPage Narcan Program. If you are interested in equipping your school nurse’s office with naloxone, view upcoming first responder trainings.
• Prevention is key to reducing youth substance use. View various prevention and education resources specifically for schools.
• Share information about the Illinois Helpline for Opioids and Other Substances with parents and family members
• Pass along the Crisis Text Line Flyer (PDF) to students. Youth who are in a crisis moment can text to get connected with a Crisis Counselor, a real-life human being trained to bring texters from a hot moment to a cool calm through active listening and collaborative problem solving.

Employers

• Share information about the Illinois Helpline for Opioids and Other Substances with employees.
• Stigma can keep people from seeking help and moving towards recovery. Learn how words matter when trying to reduce stigma (PDF).
• View the Prescription Drug Employer Kit (PDF) from the National Safety Council to understand the impact of prescription opioid use and misuse in the workplace, what employers can do, the importance of workplace drug testing, and how employee assistance programs can help.