EACH ONE – TEACH ONE –
Aug. 27, 2025 – Philadelphia’s Keli McLoyd of NACo’s Health Steering Committee. Engaging people with lived experience, both those who are in recovery and in active drug use and investing in evidence-based practices are the best ways for localities to build effective substance use disorder and overdose programming.
Fatal overdose is just one data point, and it’s not a barometer for community health, said Keli McLoyd, director of Philadelphia’s overdose response unit. While fewer people are dying of drug overdoses, that doesn’t mean fewer people are struggling with substance use disorder, but instead that more people are surviving overdoses, thanks to increased harm reduction initiatives, like widespread distribution of Naloxone, she added.
“It would be so much easier if we knew who was using drugs — if it were just ‘that person over there’ we could point at,” McLoyd said. “But we also know that the amount of folks that are experiencing substance use disorder and houselessness in that very visible way are actually a very small percentage of the population.
“So, that really requires us to develop different interventions and methods of supporting people that might be at risk for overdose, without even really knowing who these people are.”
