PHAST
The Orange County Public Health and Safety Team (PHAST) connects local members of the public health and public safety sectors, along with researchers into one united team, with the shared objective of reducing the occurrence of drug overdose fatalities. The PHAST framework uses relevant research and data to develop response, prevention, and intervention strategies that can be quickly deployed by local agencies to meet this objective.
The PHAST framework relies on four guiding principles:
1. Reducing overdose deaths
2. Recognition of Opioid Use Disorder as a chronic, treatable disease
3. Responsible use of multi-sector data to inform response strategies
4. Continuous improvement
Through monthly meetings, PHAST shares progress on intervention strategies and dissemination of relevant information, in addition to monitoring the impact of team efforts.
PHAST "SOS" Goals:
1. Shared understanding of the local overdose crisis
2. Optimized jurisdictional capacity
3. Shared accountability for reducing overdose deaths