The Lake Cumberland District Health Department (LCDHD) is pleased to announce it has received a $249,963 per year grant for three years from the Department of Health and Human Services Administration (HRSA) for their 10-county service area. HRSA awards grants through a competitive application and review process. The award will fund the work of The Lake Cumberland Opioid-Use Disorder Prevention and Treatment consortium (Dr. Larry Oteham, Pulaski County Detention Center, The Adanta Group) whose efforts will focus on improving health outcomes and reducing morbidity and mortality related to Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). The service area will include ten rural Kentucky counties: Adair, Casey, Clinton, Cumberland, Green, McCreary, Pulaski, Russell, Taylor, and Wayne.
Kentucky’s opioid epidemic has made national headlines and has been the topic of numerous news stories and documentaries. In 2015, Kentucky was ranked number four among the states with the highest rates of death due to drug overdoses with a rate of 29.9 per 100,000. Increasing overdose rates are not the only concern in our community, poor health and social outcomes due to prolonged substance use, is also concern in our district. Data shows that opioid drug arrests have increased by 28% in one year. Once arrested substance users find themselves going through a revolving door of repeated arrest and incarceration.
The goal of the grant is to educate and provide resources to persons with OUD in order to decrease overdose morbidity and mortality; and, to provide additional education to healthcare providers, detention centers, law enforcement, and community members on substance abuse and OUD. The consortium will use evidence based education and information when implementing the program in our ten-county service area.