Maine Priority Topic Investments
Click on any of the tabs below to learn more about each topic.
Maine Overdose Investment Snapshot
Combatting the current overdose crisis is a priority for the agency. This page provides an overview of the FY21 CDC Injury Center (NCIPC) overdose investments for the state of Maine.
There were 91,799 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2020 (28.3 deaths per 100,000 standard population), a stark 30% increase from 2019. Approximately 75% of drug overdose deaths in 2020 involved an opioid, with synthetic opioids (e.g., illicitly manufactured fentanyls) accounting for more than 80% of all opioid-involved deaths. Drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids increased by 55% and deaths involving psychostimulants (e.g., methamphetamine) increased by 47% from 2019 to 2020. Drug overdose deaths involving cocaine also increased by 22%.
In 2020 in Maine there were:
496
overdose deaths
39.7
overdose deaths per 100,000 people (age-adjusted)
Source: NVSS – Drug Overdose Deaths
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Overdose Data to Action (OD2A)
Public Health and Public Safety
*average award amount |
Examples of How Maine Is Working to Prevent Overdose
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Reducing stigma
Maine created a media outreach campaign to promote and destigmatize naloxone use and availability. The campaign reached the intended audience of the substance use community and friends and family who can administer naloxone to reverse overdose, and distributed toolkit material to prescribers to reach their patients. |
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Naloxone awareness
Maine worked with the National Safety Council and other partners to engage pharmacists across the state to make naloxone available for people with and without prescriptions. |
CDC Overdose Prevention Strategies
CDC’s Injury Center plays a critical role in addressing the drug overdose epidemic by driving progress in the five strategic priorities that guide CDC’s response framework for preventing overdoses.
Additional Resources
Maine Suicide Prevention Investment Snapshot
Preventing suicide is a priority for the agency. This page provides an overview of the FY21 CDC Injury Center (NCIPC) suicide prevention investments for the state of Maine.
Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States. It was responsible for almost 46,000 deaths in 2020, which is about one death every 11 minutes. The number of people who think about or attempt suicide is even higher. In 2020, 12.2 million American adults seriously thought about suicide, 3.2 million planned a suicide attempt, and 1.2 million attempted suicide.
In 2020 in Maine there were:
234
suicide deaths
16.3
suicide deaths per 100,000 people (age-adjusted)
Source: Suicide Rates by State (cdc.gov)
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Comprehensive Suicide Prevention
Emergency Department Surveillance of Nonfatal Suicide-Related Outcomes (ED-SNSRO)
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Maine is preventing suicide with CDC Injury Center (NCIPC) funding by:
- Strengthening access and delivery of suicide care
- Promoting connectedness
- Identifying and supporting people at risk
- Lessening harms and preventing future risk
- Supporting near real-time surveillance
Some groups have higher rates of suicide than others. To address disparities, Maine is focusing on:
- Rural residents
- Adults 45 years of age and older
- Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth
This snapshot reflects suicide prevention priorities and activities under Year 1 funding of the Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP) Program. This information is subject to change, as the CSP state recipients are now in Year 2 funding.
Examples of How Maine Is Working to Prevent Suicide
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Developing new definitions
Maine’s ED-SNSRO team created a new syndrome definition for “non-suicidal self-harm” to better examine the problem of self-harm and differentiate from the more severe issue of suicide attempts. They are currently refining this definition through manual review of visits captured by the syndrome. |
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Establishing partnerships
To introduce ED-SNSRO to partners, Maine conducted a virtual presentation to about 20 groups from Maine government agencies and non-profit organizations, including the Office of Child and Family Services, the Office of Behavioral Health, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The presentation included an explanation of the ED-SNSRO project and the value it brings to suicide prevention, a broad overview of near real-time surveillance, a description of key players’ roles, an explanation of the available data, and a review of potential data presentation formats. Following this presentation, the surveillance team created a weekly report displaying recent statewide trends in emergency department and emergency medical services visits related to suicide attempts and suicidal behaviors to provide timely information to community organizations to help inform their programmatic activities. |
CDC Suicide Prevention Strategies
Suicide is preventable and there is no single cause, so prevention requires addressing the multiple factors linked to suicide at the individual, relationship, community, and societal levels. As such, CDC is leading a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention. Such an approach aims to prevent people from becoming suicidal in the first place and support people at increased risk. CDC uses data to track and monitor suicide trends, research possible risks and what works to prevent them, and help communities put proven suicide prevention strategies into place.
CDC’s Suicide Prevention Resource for Action outlines seven strategies that are based on the best available evidence to help communities and states focus on prevention activities with the greatest potential to prevent suicide.
Strengthen economic supports
Create protective environments
Improve access and delivery of suicide care
Promote healthy connections
Teach coping and problem-solving skills
Identify and support people at risk
Lessen harms and prevent future risk
Near Real-Time SurveillanceImproving surveillance – collecting better and more timely data is also an important strategy to better understand, monitor, and prevent suicide and suicidal behavior. Expanding surveillance of nonfatal suicide-related outcomes (e.g., suicide attempts, suicide ideation) can help improve timeliness of data, identify spikes, and inform prevention and response.