Background
Overdose rates in King County, WA rose dramatically in 2023 with a slight decrease in 2024. Emergency Medical System providers (EMS) are among the first to arrive at the scene of an overdose and are critical partners in care for people who use drugs. The study team partnered with people who use drugs, EMS leadership, and community partners to collect pilot data and then co-design EMS-delivered interventions tailored to reduce stigma and increase access to care for people who use drugs. These interventions are being rolled out as the EMS Overdose Prevention Project (EMS-OPP) and includes training for all EMS providers on:
- stigma reduction and trauma-informed care
- an EMS naloxone leave-behind program
- EMS distribution of fentanyl test strips
- warm hand-off to a follow-up team for linkages to care
King County EMS team plan to have 90% of teams participating by 2026.
Goals and Objectives
Utilizing a variety of community-engaged methods and rooted in Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP), the goal of the ORCID Study is to evaluate the EMS-OPP initiative. Specifically, we will partner with people who drugs and Public Health – Seattle & King County to:
- evaluate the effect of EMS- OPP on racial disparities in individual experiences (Aim 1);
- further evaluate EMS-OPP from the perspectives of Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and American Indian/Alaska Native non-fatal overdose survivors (Aim 2);
- examine the impact of the EMS-OPP on racial disparities in population-level outcomes (Aim 3).
Data Collection
We are seeking 500 participants with recent (within the past 6 months) non-fatal, post-overdose interactions with Seattle & King County EMS to complete a 30-minute interview with our study team. Interviews will take place throughout 2025 in various community settings, and we can offer $50 cash for participating. Everyone who participates will be asked to complete two follow-ups at 6 months and 1 year after our initial interview. If you believe you might be eligible, please reach out: ( )
Take a look at our Recruitment Flyer.
Eventually, we will invite a subset of 60 people to complete an additional open-ended interview with us.
Thank you for your interest. Your participation will help us better understand and improve EMS overdose responses in King County.
Knowledge Translation
READU is committed to ongoing communication and collaboration with our participants and our community. We use community-oriented knowledge translation products (like zines and posters) and in-person events to stay in touch with participants and partners, highlight participant feedback, and provide updates about study activities. Below, you can see some of our knowledge translation products, links to the full versions of our zines, and photos from some of our events.
ORCID Aim 1 preliminary findings posters
Using art made by READU members, we created posters to communicate preliminary (early) findings from Aim 1 ORCID surveys. As the study continues, we will share our findings using new posters and zines. Full-size versions of these posters can be found at our data collection sites.
To view and print these posters in full-size, you can use this link.
ORCID Aim 1 data sharing meetings
In July 2025, we began hosting data sharing events at our data collection sites to reflect back what we have heard so far from our interview participants, provide updates on the study, hear feedback and answer participant questions.
(From left: Nicky Cotta, Esther Rourke, Adonica Warth, Kimiam Waters)
Folklore Zine
The ORCID study was featured in the fourth issue of Folklore Zine, a harm reduction zine created and distributed with support from Zero Block Society. Folklore Zine features artwork and writing from paid contributors who have lived and living experience and who are passionate about harm reduction and health equity.
Here’s a link to the Folklore Zine website, where you can read all four issues for free.
Business cards and stickers
Please reach out to orcidstudy@uw.edu to request free ORCID stickers and business cards.
Link to view in Canva
