HONOLULU — A new online dashboard tracking data related to drug trends is available to the public thanks to a collaboration between the University of Hawaii, Hawaii State Department of Health and 14 statewide partner organizations. The DOH Behavioral Health Administration oversees the new Statewide Substance Use, Mental Health and Hawaii CARES Summary website.

A team led by UH Associate Director of Cyberinfrastructure Sean Cleveland built the dashboard as part of the Hawaii Data Science Institute. It was funded by a nearly $4.4-million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Overdose Data to Action.

“This behavioral health dashboard is of importance to Hawaii because it promotes the use of public health surveillance data to improve interventions for substance use and mental disorders. Also, this dashboard provides information to the healthcare community and nonprofit groups that support those who experience and/or are in recovery from these conditions, along with their ohana,” said Principal Investigator Treena Becker in a news release. Becker is a researcher at the Center on Aging in UH Manoa’s Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health.

The dashboard shows current behavioral trends related to drug overdose, polysubstance abuse, co-occurring substance abuse, and mental health disorders. The ongoing collaboration between UH and DOH will provide more datasets, updates to usability, accessibility and improved mobile support down the road.

Sarah Yamanaka covers events, environmental and community news for Spectrum News Hawaii. She can be reached at sarah.yamanaka@charter.com.