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A new dashboard has been launched by Face Addiction Now (FAN) in Michigan to provide insights into the state’s substance use and mental health challenges. The interactive tool allows individuals, professionals, and organizations to view information about substance use and mental health trends, including the availability and utilization of prevention and treatment services.
Michigan has faced serious drug-related issues in recent years. The 2009-2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) found Michigan to be one of the top ten states for illicit drug use in the past month, while drug-induced deaths were also higher in the state than the national average (17.6 per 100,000 compared to 12.8 per 100,000). [1]
The 2022-2023 NSDUH report shows: [2]
- Michigan’s rate of past-month illicit drug use, which is at 20.56%, continues to exceed the national average of 16.67%.
- Michigan’s rate of substance use disorders (SUDs) in the past year was 18.13%, higher than the national average of 17.9%.
- An estimated 2.91% of the state’s population has a co-occurring SUD and serious mental illness, with a higher rate of 5.58% among those aged 18–25 years.
However, the rate of overdose deaths in Michigan has decreased from 31.1 deaths per 100,000 in 2021 to 28.2 per 100,000 in 2023 and is now lower than the national average. [3]
The development of the Face Addiction Now (FAN) dashboard
The Michigan Substance Use and Recovery Data Dashboard has been launched and is available to the public. It includes a comprehensive collection of information related to substance use and mental health issues and services in Michigan.
Background and partners
Face Addiction Now, formerly Families Against Narcotics, is a nonprofit organization that supports individuals and families impacted by substance use. The organization aims to reduce the stigma associated with SUDs, provide education and treatment for SUDs, and improve the safety of individuals, families, and communities who are affected by SUD.
FAN has partnered with Data Bloom, a data consulting organization, to create the FAN dashboard. Data Bloom partners with social good organizations to help collect and analyze data using tools developed to effectively meet the organization's purpose and goals. [4]
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funded the FAN dashboard through its Strategic Prevention Framework for Prescription Drugs (SPF-RX) grant. [4]
Objectives of the dashboard
The FAN dashboard was created to help reduce the impact of substance use and mental health issues in the state of Michigan. It can be used by professionals, organizations, and policymakers to access a comprehensive view of necessary information, including trends in drug use, service utilization and availability, and treatment outcomes.
This information can help inform decisions regarding state policies, support service systems and applications, and individual treatments.
Exploring the dashboard’s features
Pages on the dashboard include:
- Treatment and Recovery: Information about service locations, along with comparisons of admission rates, types of recovery services, and types of substances
- Treatment and Recovery Service Locations: A map of available service locations, including types of services and locations of services offering prepaid inpatient health plans (PIHP)
- Harm Reduction: Michigan’s harm reduction strategies, including information about locations and numbers of naloxone kits distributed and drug checking results
- Prescription Drug Monitoring: Data regarding the numbers and types of prescriptions in Michigan, including prescription rates per resident, opioid prescription rates, and average dosages
- Overdose Incidence/Death: Rates of overdose, overdose deaths, Quick Response Team Visits, and comparisons of prescriptions, overdoses, and treatment admissions
- FAN Program Presence: Details of the programs offered in Michigan by FAN, including an overview of the numbers and impacts of these programs
- Data Sources: Details of the sources from which information has been gathered for the dashboard
Practical applications and community impact
The dashboard’s features can be used to view comprehensive data collected via multiple sources. This information can have the following impacts: [4]
- Compare the rates of drug use to the number of people utilizing support services, highlighting the key factors influencing service access and delivery and areas that require improvement.
- Analyze prescription drug rates compared to overdose rates involving prescription drugs, improving the monitoring of drug prescriptions, dispensing, and misuse.
- Assess the availability and utilization of services, including naloxone distribution and Quick Response Teams, comparing the application of these services with overdose rates to recognize their benefits and improvement requirements.
The future of data-driven decision-making in public health
Data dashboards for reviewing and analyzing health information became widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic to effectively and efficiently collect and analyze a range of nationwide and worldwide data. These tools allowed real-time data monitoring to inform diagnoses, disease control, and health management during the pandemic. [5]
Since then, health dashboards have become ubiquitous and are increasingly being used to monitor and manage statewide and nationwide substance use issues across the United States, including:
- Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs): Tracking controlled substance prescription and dispensing
- Drug Overdose Surveillance and Epidemiology (DOSE): Information compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about emergency department visits for overdoses
- State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS): Data from the CDC regarding the number of drug overdose deaths, the substances involved, and details of specific circumstances surrounding the death
- State-specific dashboards, including Vermont’s Substance Use Dashboard and Pennsylvania’s Substance Use Behavior Dashboard
Dashboards such as these make information more widely accessible and comprehensible. They allow the public, healthcare professionals, and policymakers to quickly and effectively view and compare data regarding specific health or substance use issues, which can inform actions and decision-making and evaluate interventions. [5][6]
This means that the development and evaluation of dashboards should include: [6][7]
- Understanding and meeting the needs of its users
- Effective and reliable information collection
- Up-to-date data
- Clear visualization of information
- Evaluation of the dashboard, such as user views, how dashboard data is being used, and the objectives of the dashboard in regard to public health monitoring or improvements
Final thoughts
The FAN dashboard is an example of how data dashboards can be used to address public health issues, such as substance use disorders and overdose deaths. The development of these tools and the accumulation of necessary data require funding and support from organizations such as SAMHSA and other foundations or federal agencies. [7]
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