Prevention First Leadership Center Harm Reduction ECHO focuses on harm reduction issues and community-based strategies to prevent substance use-related overdoses, deaths, or other harmful impacts, including decreasing the stigma surrounding harm reduction.  Each ECHO session will have a 20-minute presentation facilitated by a guest speaker on various topics, including evidence-based harm reduction strategies, stigma, obtaining community buy-in, and current trends. The remainder of the session involves case presentation(s) and peer discussion on strategies to overcome the issues presented. If you are interested, please sign up through this link.

Leadership Centers

The goal of the Leadership Center is to increase knowledge and use of medication-assisted recovery and reduce opioid and stimulant use disorder by working across the Care Continuum and using a systems-based approach. 

Rush University Medical Center

Carle Foundation Hospital

Chestnut Health Systems, Inc
The Statewide ROSC Leadership Center exists to offer training and technical assistance to the Illinois Department of Human Services, Division of Substance Use Prevention and Recovery funded Recovery Oriented Systems of Care Programs. The Center for Community Engagement (CCE) is here to support individuals, agencies, and coalitions seeking to create community change related to substance use and recovery supports in Illinois. Our team provides expert training, coalition-building support, and access to resources.

SIU Center for Rural Health
The Southern Illinois University (SIU) Rural Health Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Leadership Center is operated out of the SIU School of Medicine’s Center for Rural Health and Social Service Development in Carbondale.  Leadership Center activities include mobile harm reduction, SUD outreach to marginalized populations, SMART Recovery programming, SUD-related ECHOs and webinars, overdose prevention and reversal train-the-trainer, and expansion of problem-solving courts.

Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care (ROSC)

Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care Resource Guide 
This technical assistance resource guide was prepared for SAMHSA’s Partners for Recovery Initiative and includes an introduction and background of Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care.

Coalition Map

When it comes to substance use prevention, local people solve local problems best. Coalitions from across Illinois are working hard to prevent youth substance use. This map allows for identifying coalitions within a county and service area.

The Statewide Overdose Action Plan

On March 21, 2022, Governor Pritzker announced the launch of The Statewide Overdose Action Plan; the state’s collective call to action. This plan focuses on five priority recommendation categories and is the strategic framework for moving toward the goal of reducing overdose deaths in Illinois: Social Equity, Prevention, Treatment and Recovery, Harm Reduction, and Justice-Involved Populations and Public Safety.

November 2024 Implementation Report

IDPH Opioid Dashboard 

Data and information on how opioids have been affecting Illinois, please visit our interactive Opioid Data Request Form Opioid overdoses in Illinois have been increasing dramatically in recent years. 

Illinois Helpline 

The IL Helpline is the only statewide public resource for finding substance use and problem gambling treatment and recovery services in Illinois. A 24/7 free and confidential service that will connect you or a loved one to treatment and recovery providers across Illinois, consider us a bridge to the information, support, and services that you need.

Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution (OEND) 

The OEND programs are registered with the IDHS/SUPR Drug Overdose Prevention Program, which gives them the ability to distribute the opioid overdose antidote naloxone. They can assist individuals and organizations with obtaining naloxone and support substance use treatment programs, human service agencies, and other institutions with establishing their own OEND services. 
OEND Provider Contacts

Drug Overdose Deaths

The purpose of the SAMHSA-funded Technology Transfer Centers (TTC) is to develop and strengthen the specialized behavioral healthcare and primary healthcare workforce that provides prevention, treatment, and recovery support services for substance use disorders and mental illness.

Effective Substance Use Prevention Messaging for Youth
This report highlights a selection of quantitative findings from the national assessments as insight for health care, education and social service providers on effective approaches to substance use prevention conversations with the youth they serve.

Recent Trends in Mental Health and Substance Use Concerns Among Adolescents
This brief uses the NHIS-Teen data – which was collected for an 18 month period from 2021 to 2022 – to provide an up-to-date analysis of adolescent mental health, utilization of mental health care, and unmet needs and how they vary across demographics, including sex and sexual identity.

Leadership Center Networking Guide
This toolkit identifies the critical steps to build a network to support work on opioid use disorder (OUD). It is a resource to assist Leadership Center staff, coalition members, Recovery Oriented System of Care (ROSC) Councils, and other community groups in determining if a network is necessary for their work and, if so, offer considerations for creating a network.

SAMHSA Guide: Decisions in Recovery Treatment for Opioid Use Disorders
These resources were developed by SAMHSA for professional providers and people with substance use disorders to assist with discussing and comparing various treatment options.

Treatment Improvement Protocol: Medications for Opioid Use Disorder 
This Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) reviews the use of the three Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medications used to treat OUD—methadone, naltrexone, and buprenorphine—and the other strategies and services needed to support recovery for people with OUD. This is a revision.

Evidence-based Practices for Use of Medication-Assisted Treatment in Criminal Justice Settings 
This guide focuses on policies and practices that can be implemented to intervene during an individual’s time in the correctional system and upon release that moderate and mitigate the risk of overdose for persons with OUD after release.

How Racism and Bias Influence Substance Use and Addiction Treatment | The Brink | Boston University 
Christina Lee calls substance use treatment a social justice issue and is helping healthcare providers see the connection between discrimination and drinking.

Infusing Equity and Cultural Responsiveness in Local Youth Substance Use Prevention Efforts: Tips and Tools 
The purpose of the toolkit is to help communities weave equity and cultural responsiveness throughout implementation of the Strategic Prevention Framework. The toolkit contains tips, templates, and case studies.

The War on Drugs as Structural Racism - Penn LDI 
Penn LDI Seminar Explores a Century of Racialized Responses to Drug Use and Addiction

Culturally Sensitive Substance Use Prevention Programs Benefit Youth | HEDCO Institute 
Findings from a meta-analysis show that culturally sensitive prevention programs are effective in preventing or reducing substance use among Black, Hispanic/Latine, and Native American adolescents.

Harm Reduction as a Trauma-Informed Approack to Substance Use
Trauma informed care (TIC) is a critical component for working with patients who use substances because it realizes, recognizes, responds to, and resists retraumatization.vii TIC and harm reduction help patients feel safe, which helps to strengthen the patient-provider relationship, allowing the provider to empower patients and providing a space to patients that welcomes them as they are.

Ch. 1.2: A Brief History of Substance Use and Policy Responses in the U.S. – Introduction to Substance Use Disorders
While substance misuse is a contemporary social problem, the story of humans experiencing problems related to the use of psychoactive substances is at least 4,000-10,000 years old (Hanson, Venturelli, & Fleckenstein, 2015; Howard, Garland, & Whitt, 2013; Singer, 2012). United States history is peppered with documentation of problems associated with alcohol and other drugs.

IDHS: Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT) Overview   

Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in a Pediatric Setting 
A National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Center for Clinical Trials Network study evaluated the efficacy of continuing buprenorphine-naloxone treatment for 12 weeks versus providing only detoxification to youth ages 15–21 who were opioid dependent.

Naloxone NOW
In September 2019, Naloxone NOW launched to help educate Illinoisans about the life-saving tool of naloxone and address its related stigma. The following toolkits contain downloadable print and social media materials to use locally.

How to Talk to 911 When Calling for Overdose | Spanish Version
This resource provides step-by-step instructions on how to communicate with a 911 operator when calling in an overdose event.

Recovery Position | Spanish Version
The recovery position helps a person who is semiconscious or unconscious breathe and allows fluids to drain from the nose and throat to avoid aspiration.

Signs of an Opioid Overdose | Spanish Version 
Recognize the signs of an overdose and learn how to respond.

Tranq-Xylazine Information | Spanish Version 
Xylazine is a veterinary tranquilizer that is cut in dope to give fentanyl longer legs. It’s known as “anestesia de caballo” in Puerto Rico and “tranq” in Chicago.

Preventing and Reducing Stigma The MHTTC Network and the National Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine collaborated on an environmental scan and needs assessment of available educator mental health literacy training and resources.

Words Matter: Preferred Language for Talking About Addiction | National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) With simple changes in language, harmful stigma and negativity around SUD can be reduced or avoided. Read on to learn more about stigma, how it affects people with SUD, and how you can help make a change.

SAMHSA Strategic Prevention Framework Guide | Spanish Version 
Prevention professionals use SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) as a comprehensive guide to plan, implement, and evaluate prevention practices and programs.