Wisconsin Opioid Overdose Response Center

The Wisconsin Opioid Overdose Response Center (WOORC) is an interdisciplinary team of academic researchers and pharmacy professionals housed within the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy.

This one-of-a-kind center is working to connect science, community, and clinical practice to reduce overdose deaths and advance recovery from substance use disorders across the state. The center’s efforts focus on creating connections between the School of Pharmacy and community pharmacists throughout Wisconsin to help ensure that people in every part of the state have access to supportive, evidence-based care and overdose prevention supplies. WOORC initiatives seek to leverage the widespread distribution of pharmacies and the close ties that pharmacists have with their patients and communities to help turn the tide of the overdose crisis in Wisconsin.

Data from the Wisconsin Dept. of Health Services show that opioids are implicated in over three-quarters of all drug overdose deaths and lead to over 1000 preventable deaths across the state each year. Pharmacists are well positioned to help prevent these overdose deaths because they are highly accessible, trusted sources of information about sensitive health topics and practice in communities throughout the state, including in many areas that otherwise lack healthcare resources or help underserved patient populations.

WOORC disseminates evidence-based prevention and treatment initiatives to pharmacists who then provide them to the patients that they serve. As trusted, approachable health communicators, pharmacists’ involvement in opioid harm reduction helps decrease stigma and creates opportunities for people who use drugs to engage in safer habits and behaviors, access health services, or enter recovery.

Your gift to the WOORC Fund supports innovative research, teaching, and outreach focused on improving the health and safety of people who use drugs and those in recovery. A financial contribution to WOORC will help the center continue:

• Supporting practice transformation through implementation science and cross-sector collaboration
• Expanding patient access to long-acting injectable medications for substance use disorders, especially in rural Wisconsin
• Providing harm reduction supplies such as fentanyl and xylazine test strips to pharmacies across the state in our Pharmacy Resource Network
• Distributing intranasal naloxone (Narcan®) through community events and partner organizations.
• Distributing educational pamphlets on opioid safety and harm reduction through our Pharmacy Resource Network.
• Supporting preclinical research into novel technologies to prevent opioid overdose.

WOORC bridges disciplines—public health, research, and pharmacy—while maintaining a strong commitment to people-first, anti-stigma approaches to substance use.

Help us build a future where all Wisconsinites impacted by overdose or addiction can thrive.