Lessons Learned from the Opioid Crisis Response Benchmark Project for Loudoun County

In November 2024, Loudoun County Health and Human Services tasked the CSSR to conduct a national review of jurisdictions’ opioid response efforts and identify a set of best practices, common strategies and lessons learned to help guide Loudoun County for future opioid use response strategic planning and assessment.

CSSR researchers met with stakeholders from Loudoun county government and an advisory council of practitioners across the state of VA, to identify those jurisdictions and identify interview priorities and questions. We collaboratively conducted interviews with opioid response practitioners from the jurisdictions identified by the advisory council.

CSSR researchers identified seven core pillars of opioid response:

1. Community Participatory Design & Decision-Making (Uplift Lived Experience)

2. Build Networks for Collaborative Strategic Planning with Cross-Sector, Cross-Agency & Community Partners

3. Embrace Harm Reduction Framework (Preservation of Life)

4. Commit to Stigma Reduction Framework

5. Integrate System-Level Thinking, Social Determinants of Health & Awareness of Historically Disadvantaged Communities

6. Evidence-driven and Place-based (Policy & Practice with Local Specificity)

7. Promote Programming that is Flexible, Sustainable & Resilient

These commitments should be operationalized within five key areas of the continuum of care for opioid response:

1. Education & Prevention

2. Crisis Response & Intervention

3. Treatment

4. Recovery

5. Assessment & Reporting

To see the slide deck created by the George Mason team, please click here or entering the following link in your browser: https://d101vc9winf8ln.cloudfront.net/documents/56685/original/Loudoun_Strategic_Plan_Benchmarking_Slides_for_Design_final.pdf?1786548490