Launch Your OFR

The Practitioner’s Guide for Implementation was developed in partnership between COSSUP and the CDC. It provides the reader with the needed information to build a successful OFR with a strong foundation in coalition, data collection, and prevention.

This training opportunity provides the viewer with information on how to establish an effective OFR including how to staff, recruit, plan, and facilitate successful OFR meetings, as well as identify measures of success and strategies to store data and implement identified recommendations.

This project management tool template provides a simple way to create a project management Gantt chart to help visualize and track the implementation of an OFR as outlined in OFR: A Practitioner's Guide to Implementation.

The national standards were developed to ensure OFRs remain effective. These national standards are based on multiple state and local jurisdiction’s OFR and other fatality review practice-based experiences.

To assist OFRs in capturing as much information as possible about a decedent to make meaningful recommendations for prevention, Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association (LAPPA), in partnership with IIR, developed information sharing fact sheets. These fact sheets provide OFR teams an understanding of what members legally can and cannot share regarding federal law (such as 42 C.F.R. and HIPAA).

The 2021 Virtual National Forum on OFR featured two mock OFR meetings conducted by actual OFR team members: one from an urban community and the other from a rural community.

The OFR message exchange is a platform for OFR team members to engage with each other, share information, and problem-solve.

To assist local communities in storing OFR data and monitoring recommendations, the BJA and the CDC—in partnership with IIR, epidemiologists, researchers, and local OFR practice professionals—developed a free, secure, standardized online OFR Data System.

Regardless of funding source, anyone can request OFR TTA. Expertise is available to support the expansion and development of overdose fatality review expansion and development of OFRs.

If you staff an OFR, please register your OFR team with COSSUP. Once your team has registered IIR can provide ongoing support and your team can be listed on the COSSUP online dashboard allowing for people to find and connect with teams such as yours from across the country.

The OFR Mentor Program encourages the uptake of promising peer practices by newly formed OFR sites by building bridges between nascent OFR teams and established ones that have demonstrated success. Participating OFR mentees are matched to an experienced OFR mentor site that provides consultation and support through direct communication and a virtual OFR site visit to see firsthand how OFRs work in practice.