August 2018 – July 2019 

The Rural Health Network Development Planning Grant established the Northeast Kentucky Opioid Crisis Response Network. The partners on this original project were the Gateway District Health Department; the Northeast Kentucky Area Health Education Center; Pathways, Inc.; St. Claire HealthCare; and Sterling Healthcare.

Throughout the course of this planning grant, the group created and disseminated a survey about medication-assisted treatment (MAT) to local health care providers and their office administrators. The survey polled whether or not their practice was currently providing MAT; and if they were not, if they would be interested in doing so in the future. It also identified barriers for providers in integrating this treatment into their practice. Completed by more than 100 professionals, this survey helped us build a list of local practitioners who we could market continuing education learning opportunities to, as well as collect data about how we could help increase the number of MAT providers within our service area.

June 2019 – May 2020

The Rural Communities Opioid Response Program, Planning II grant established the Northeast Kentucky Opioid Crisis Response Consortium. The partners were the Clark County Health Department; Comprehend, Inc.; the Kentucky Rural Healthcare Information Organization; the Northeast Kentucky Area Health Education Center; St. Claire HealthCare; and Tri-State Primary Care. However, early on in the project, it was decided this Consortium should combine with Northeast Kentucky Opioid Crisis Response Network (established by the Rural Health Network Development Planning Grant in 2018) to form the Northeast Kentucky Opioid Crisis Response Coalition.

The consortium planned to conduct community meetings to assess the state of the substance use epidemic and the recovery environments in each of the seven counties in the project service area. Originally, the vision was to meet with school boards, drug courts, law enforcement, religious groups, etc.; any “key players” within the communities. While those community meetings were hosted, the project took a different direction as well. In one of the monthly meetings of the Consortium, one of the members suggested interviewing incarcerated individuals within local detention centers. Our next step was to identify jails within the project service region and build relationships with jail staff in order to gain entry into their facilities. For the interviews, we asked for volunteers with drug-related chargers or those who self-identified with substance use disorder and/or opioid use disorder. Between the four detention centers (in Clark, Greenup, Mason, and Powell counties), 37 interviews were conducted. While this experience was crucial in gathering data, it also was life-changing for project staff. These interviews sparked a previously unknown level of compassion for this population within each member of the team. These interviews took a grant project and turned it into a passion project and started to steer the group in ways we never could have expected.

Partly because of this passion, and partly because of the data gleaned from the interview process, it was decided our group should change its name once again to reflect the broader substance use issues within the service region, and the Northeast Kentucky Substance Use Response Coalition was born. 

September 2019 – August 2022

The Rural Communities Opioid Response Program Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) Expansion grant proposed to implement or expand MAT in St. Claire HealthCare’s four rural health clinics. St. Claire Family Medicine-Frenchburg expanded its MAT services beginning in 2019, and the three other rural health clinics have each implemented MAT services since that time.

MAT is the use of medications, in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies, to provide a “whole-patient” approach to the treatment of substance use disorders. Medications used in MAT are approved by the Food and Drug Administration and MAT programs are clinically driven and tailored to meet each patient’s needs. Research shows that a combination of medication and therapy can successfully treat these disorders, and for some people struggling with addiction, MAT can help sustain recovery. MAT is also used to prevent or reduce opioid overdose. (https://www.samhsa.gov/medication-assisted-treatment)

July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2023

The Rural Health Network Development Program grant formalized the Northeast Kentucky Substance Use Response Coalition by creating a Governing Board structure and bylaws. The partners are the Clark County Health Department; Comprehend, Inc.; the Gateway District Health Department; the Kentucky Rural Healthcare Information Organization; the Northeast Kentucky Area Health Education Center; Pathways, Inc.; St. Claire HealthCare; and Tri-State Primary Care.

This project has established a multi-faceted educational approach for medical professionals and young students. For providers, we created a series of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) trainings. To read more about those trainings, click here. Additionally, we are working with the Kentucky Rural Health Association to provide the Kentucky Hepatitis Academic Mentorship Program (KHAMP) to northeastern Kentucky providers. This is good supplemental education, as many patients within MAT clinics suffer from comorbidities like Hepatitis C.

For students, we will be presenting the Generation Rx curriculum (created by The Cardinal Health Foundation and The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy) in each county within the project service area. This curriculum teaches students about medication safety and the dangers of misusing prescription medications. For more information about our youth prevention program, click here.

To learn more about how our team conceptualized this RHND project, check out this video. This video was produced by the UR Medicine Recovery Center of Excellence, University of Rochester Medical Center and the Northeast Kentucky Substance Use Response Coalition. For more on this topic from the UR Medicine Recovery Center of Excellence, click here!

September 1, 2020 – August 31, 2023

The Rural Communities Opioid Response Program, Implementation II grant members include Achieving Recovery Together; the Clark County Detention Center; the Clark County Health Department; Comprehend, Inc.; the Mason County Detention Center; the Northeast Kentucky Area Health Education Center; Pathways, Inc.; St. Claire HealthCare; and the Powell County Detention Center.

This project has established a jail reentry program called First Day Forward, which aims to connect incarcerated individuals to resources, both during incarceration and continued after their release. Because data show the risk of death from drug overdose during the first two weeks after release from incarceration can be up to 129 times higher than that of the general population, we know the time following release is crucial. 

This grant also provides the Generation Rx curriculum (created by The Cardinal Health Foundation and The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy) to students in each county within the project service area. This curriculum teaches students about medication safety and the dangers of misusing prescription medications. 

September 1, 2020 – February 1, 2022

Rural Communities Opioid Response Program, Planning III grant members are Comprehend, Inc.; the Northeast Kentucky Area Health Education Center; the Kentucky Rural Healthcare Information Organization; the Montgomery County Health Department; Pathways, Inc.; and St. Claire HealthCare.

Since this was another round of planning, we proposed conducting more interviews with incarcerated individuals and key community members in an attempt to assess the potential for replicating First Day Forward (for more information about First Day Forward, click here) in the northeastern Kentucky detention centers not included in our RCORP Implementation project.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a slow start. However, we did manage to conduct interviews at three detention centers. This data informed our RCORP-Implementation III grant application, which is currently under review.

This project is ongoing and we are in planning stages to host fall 2021 employer forums, which will educate local business owners on why they should consider hiring “second-chance employees,” or those who are in recovery from a substance use disorder, are in treatment, perhaps have a criminal record, etc.

September 1, 2021 - August 31, 2024
This Implementation project will be used to: establish the Coalition’s jail reentry program, First Day Forward, in the Montgomery County Regional Jail; expand medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) availability in Rowan County; begin offering MOUD pre-release to incarcerated individuals in Montgomery County and at the Rowan County Detention Center; enhance recovery resources in Lewis County; and provide prevention education to students, and substance use disorder education to medical providers, in all three target counties.

The Rural Communities Opioid Response Program, Implementation IV grant members include Pathways, Inc; St. Claire HealthCare; Tri-State Primary Care; and the Carter County Detention Center.

This project has established a jail reentry program called First Day Forward, which aims to connect incarcerated individuals to resources, both during incarceration and continued after their release. Because data show the risk of death from drug overdose during the first two weeks after release from incarceration can be up to 129 times higher than that of the general population, we know the time following release is crucial.

This grant is expanding Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) in Carter County at Tri-State Primary Care.

This grant also provides the Generation Rx curriculum (created by The Cardinal Health Foundation and the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy) to students and the elderly population in Carter County. This curriculum teaches students about medication safety and the dangers of misusing prescription medications.

The Pallottine Foundation focuses on caring for the spiritual, emotional, and physical health of those they serve. There are four core focus areas, including food insecurity, mental and behavioral health, substance use disorder, and tobacco cessation. The grant partners for this Pallottine Core Priorities grant are Pathways, Inc.; St. Claire HealthCare; Boyd County Detention Center and the Greenup County Detention Center. This project will work to establish our jail reentry program, First Day Forward, into the Boyd and Greenup County Detention Centers. This project will connect recently released individuals who struggle with substance use disorder to vital community resources following incarceration; including coordination of pre-release Vivitrol injections.

RCORP Overdose Response

September 1, 2023 - August 31, 2024

This project will establish a Recovery Community Organization in Rowan County. Included in this grant are employer stipends (to encourage second-chance employment), housing stipends, a van to help with transportation hurdles, and various other activities that promote recovery.

CDC Foundation 'Implementation and Monitoring of Overdose Prevention Indicators

September 2023 - August 2024

In conjunction with the Gateway District Health Department, we will track overdose indicators in Bath, Elliott, and Rowan counties as part of an effort to determine what characteristics most contribute to overdoses in each community. We will report these indicators and their data to the CDC Foundation and ultimately create a data-driven approach to preventing overdose deaths.

Rural Health Network Development Planning

July 2024 - June 2025

The Rural Health Network Development Planning grant is a one-year federal grant to assess regional suicide risk and potential interventions. This project facilitated the addition of a new focus area to the Coalition's programming (suicide prevention) as well as two new members (Carter County Schools and Recovery Rowan County, Inc.) The project will enable eight partner organizations to administer surveys and conduct focus groups targeted toward clinics, hospitals, schools/universities, and recovery centers. Besides St. Claire HealthCare/Northeast Kentucky AHEC, network members for this project will include Carter County Schools; the Clark County Health Department; Comprehend, Inc.; Gateway District Health Department; Morehead State University; Pathways, Inc.; and Recovery Rowan County, Inc. The project will target Bath, Carter, Clark, Mason, Montgomery, and Rowan counties.

Northeastern Kentucky suffers from comparatively high rates of overdose deaths and suicides, and some experts estimate that up to 30% of opioid-related overdose deaths are actually suicides. This project is therefore a logical and critical step for the Coalition as we explore and assess this complex issue.