As part of the federal response to the opioid crisis, the Opioid Rapid Response Team project (2018-2019) was created to provide rapid short-term assistance to requesting US jurisdictions responding to an acute opioid-related event. The project used an approach that maximized overall value by leveraging existing federal resources and harnessing opportunities to meet project-specific objectives while also enhancing general response capacity at the federal, state, and local levels. This tandem capacity building for both opioid rapid response and general response focused on systems and operations, workforce readiness, technical assistance, and partnerships. In this article, we demonstrate the ancillary value that issue-specific response activities can contribute to broader public health response capacity.
Keywords: Jurisdictional issues; Opioid; Public health preparedness/response; Rapid response.