Welcome to the Nevada Opioid Center of Excellence

As temperatures across the West continue to rise, extreme heat has become more than a seasonal inconvenience—it’s a growing public health crisis. In Nevada, people without access to stable housing or cooling resources face serious health risks during heat waves. Substance use, certain medications, and chronic health conditions can also increase vulnerability. Understanding who’s most at risk—and how to stay safe—is critical as our summers grow longer and hotter.

The Nevada Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) team has released August updates, including new monthly surveillance reports and upcoming office hours for partners interested in overdose data.

Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)–funded initiative that supports state and local partners in using timely, high-quality data to inform overdose prevention and response strategies. In Nevada, the OD2A team collects, analyzes, and disseminates actionable data—including emergency department visits, fatal and non-fatal overdoses, and other surveillance indicators—to help communities identify trends, guide resource allocation, and strengthen coordinated response efforts across the state.

In the traditional landscape of addiction treatment, clinical interventions like medication-assisted treatment and talk therapy are the bedrock, the emergency maneuvers that keep a person from drowning. But as Bianca D. McCall, a licensed clinical therapist and behavioral scientist, often notes, “Saving a life is just one step. “When substance use is removed, it leaves behind a profound void, a hollowed-out space where a person’s identity, community, and daily rhythm once resided. While the therapist’s couch offers a safe harbor for reflection, it often leaves the body behind, frozen in the hypervigilance of past trauma. To fill the void, a burgeoning movement of “Sweat and Sobriety” suggests that we must step outside the clinical walls. Movement, it turns out, is not just about physical health; it is the bridge between surviving and truly living.