Maryland Crime Research and Innovation Center

Stephanie Weaver, Jeff Horwitz, and Charles Harry, Associate Research Professor
School of Public Policy

The opioid epidemic costs the U.S. over a hundred lives every day and hundreds of billions of dollars each year. The mission of Stop the Addiction Fatality Epidemic (SAFE) is to contribute in a tangible way to overcoming the addiction epidemic in the U.S. The treatment locator application helps individuals find treatment centers that match their needs quickly and independently.

Other treatment locators only identify facilities which are located the closest to the individual, not taking into account needs characteristics. SAFE identifies the facility best suited to a treatment-seeker’s specific needs as well as their proximity to the facility. The SAFE Treatment Locator draws on individual parameters from a potential patient while protecting their privacy.

SAFE completed the database integration and application programming interface. After final beta testing was completed, SAFE publicly launched the treatment locator at www.SAFEProject.us. The marketing strategy targets Maryland and, particularly, Arundel County through social media. SAFE is collecting usage data and feedback from users, which will be used to determine improvements to the application.

SAFE plans to include more information and resources related to payment (e.g., insurance information) in order to assist individuals in determining how they can pay for treatment. Additionally, future versions of the locator will include analytical data that could assist policymakers in assessing and determining growing treatment facility needs. Lastly, some cosmetic changes will be made to accommodate requests from users.