Using Community Engagement to Map Pathways of Opioid Use and Recovery

We created a tool for use by the community of Tippecanoe County Indiana and their Opioid Task Force to guide their collaborative efforts in addressing the opioid crisis. A community-engaged research strategy led to the creation of a map of opioid pathways based in a systems thinking approach that considers key stakeholders and community members as system components and reflects local resources, supply, and demand for services, and the social ecology unique to this community. Organizations are able to visualize the importance of their interactions with other organizations within the community as they work together to address the crisis. This approach could be replicated in other communities and used to address other public health issues.