Ocean County Overdose Fatality Review Program (OC-OFRP)

The OCHD plays an important role in Ocean County's response to the opiate and heroin epidemic impacting our communities - leading the Ocean County Overdose Fatality Review Project (OC-OFRP) is one innovative method employed to assess some of the root causes and antecedents of substance abuse. This project is a decedent review process that examines the interaction of the complex systems of residents including their family history, environment, and autonomous agents of impact (experiences).

The OC-OFRP utilizes two approaches to data collection: 1) a “social autopsy” process which reviews individual and system trends experienced by an overdose decedent, and 2) countywide data collection efforts on the opioid epidemic. Both approaches aim to find the local denominator for addiction in our county.

Currently, more than 35 agencies are affiliated to conduct social autopsies with the Ocean County Overdose Fatality Review Program representing state, county and local entities and the program is currently approved through 2020.