Personal, Social, and Health Profiles of Victims of Drug-Related Deaths in New York City: Insights from Next-of-Kin Interviews (2017-2021)

Session Description: New York City (NYC) has experienced alarming increases in drug overdose deaths since 2015. In response to this crisis, the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner began conducting interviews with next-of-kin (NOK) of suspected overdose decedents to supplement overdose fatality reviews, support death investigations, and inform partner agencies' programmatic initiatives (e.g., public health, public safety). Forensic social workers conducted interviews with NOK between 2017-2021 regarding decedents' social background, health, and substance use histories, generating a large, novel dataset. We conducted qualitative thematic analysis of these narratives (n=749), generating >500 codes, and stratified analyses by decedent demographic characteristics. These analyses resulted in four overarching themes: 1) the challenging context of social determinants of health (SDoH) for decedents, 2) patterns in familial support and/or estrangement, 3) extensive history of mental and physical health conditions, and 4) negative emotional status and circumstances around their time of death. This session will share the methods used in analyzing this unique dataset, the strengths and limitations of using NOK interviews as a data source, and the thematic outcomes of our analysis. Topics included in this discussion will range from housing characteristics, employment histories, and engagement with social services to decedents' emotional states around the times of their deaths and how this may relate to SDoH. Further, we will explore what factors may have demonstrated positive and/or negative impacts on decedents' substance use histories through these themes. This session will consider the results of this research to inform specific actionable outcomes that may be applied to addressing the overdose crisis. We will also share how these data may be used locally to inform ongoing overdose prevention efforts by OCME and partners in NYC.