SAFER OPIOIDS
Your resource for data-driven strategies to minimize unnecessary opioid prescriptions, prevent diversion of opioids into your community, and provide effective non-opioid pain relief.
Patients
Contemplating an operation? Had an injury? Have old opioid prescriptions around the house and want to safely dispose of them? Click below to find a curated, searchable list of opioid information for patients.
Practitioners
Do you prescribe opioid medications? Click below for easy-to-read summaries of the latest literature, prescribing best practices, patient education materials, and other information specifically tailored to medical professionals.
Public
Opioids affect the lives of patients, prescribing professionals, and whole communities. Click below for a comprehensive list of resources about disposal, community support, and ways you can help in your community to reduce the impact of opioids.
Half of people who misuse opioids get them from a friend or relative for free.
Prescription opioids account for as many opioid-related deaths as heroin.
22% of people who misuse opioids get them from a physician.
1 in 16 patients (6%) of patients prescribed opioids after surgery get a second prescription.
WHO WE ARE
Safer Opioids is a co-production of the Wisconsin South Central Healthcare Emergency Readiness Coalition (SCWIHERC), South Central Regional Trauma Advisory Council (SCRTAC), Surgical Collaborative of Wisconsin (SCW), and Department of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. This website was funded by a generous Enhancing Public Health Preparedness: The Opioid Epidemic grant from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS).