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In 2020, Kentucky had the third highest age-adjusted drug overdose fatality rate in the United States, at 49.3 deaths per 100,000 people. Only West Virginia and the District of Columbia had higher fatality rates for that year (82 and 57.9 deaths per 100,000 people, respectively). The total age-adjusted drug overdose fatality rate for the U.S. was 28.3 in 2020. Opioids continue to be involved in a large proportion of overdoses: Approximately 81% of Kentucky resident overdose deaths in 2020 involved opioids. Additionally, the proportion of Kentucky resident overdose deaths involving fentanyl has increased from 29% in 2016 to 69% in 2020. Poisoning remains the leading cause of injury-related mortality for Kentucky residents aged 24-64 from 2016-2020. For data requests, click here. To view the drug overdose county profiles, click here.

Associated Programs

  • Kentucky Perinatal Quality Collaborative (KyPQC)

    The Kentucky Perinatal Quality Collaborative (KyPQC) is a statewide network of birthing hospitals and stakeholder teams collaborating on improving the quality of care during pregnancy, delivery, and throughout the first year of life.

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  • Rural Center of Excellence in Recovery Housing (RCOE-RH)

    The Rural Center of Excellence on Recovery Housing (RCOE-RH) focuses on increasing the quality and availability of, and access to, recovery housing in more than 100 rural counties within the service area of Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia.

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  • Data Driven Responses to Prescription Drug Misuse

    The project aims to: 1) analyze gabapentin prescribing in Kentucky since July 1, 2017, when gabapentin became a Schedule V controlled substance; 2) evaluate the effect of Kentucky’s 2017 SB32, which amended KRS 218A.202 to require the Administrative Office of the Courts to forward drug conviction data to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services for inclusion in KASPER (Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting); and 3) develop continuing education for use of drug conviction data in clinical context.

  • FindHelpNowKY.org

    FindHelpNowKY.org was created by the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center in partnership with the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, the Kentucky Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities, and the KY HELP line.

    FindHelpNowKY.org is a locator for substance use disorder (SUD) facilities, recovery houses, mental health providers who are actively taking new clients and free naloxone sites. This user-friendly and easy-to-understand online referral-based intervention can improve clinical workflow and increase timely access to SUD treatment and information.

    SUD treatment facility owners and operators create and manage a profile page for each of their locations using an administrative dashboard. Each facility profile affords designated personnel the opportunity to add details such as accepted payment methods, populations served, facility policies, treatment types and availability, and over 50 other fields. To ensure the completeness and accuracy of information, facilities must request publication on the website and have their profiles reviewed by website administrators before being included in the live search results.

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  • Drug Overdose Surveillance

    The mission of the Kentucky Drug Overdose Surveillance program is to provide timely reports on the morbidity and mortality associated with drug overdose in the Commonwealth.

    KIPRC works with local health departments, community stakeholders, and local and statewide agencies to develop evidence-based initiatives that address issues associated with substance misuse, abuse, and overdose. KIPRC maintains multiple databases that lend insight into injury patterns in Kentucky, including the datasets of emergency department visits, inpatient hospitalizations, death certificates, prescription drug monitoring, and workers' compensation claims.

    These data are used to develop presentations on local and regional trends and harm reduction efforts, to identify specific targets for evidence-based prevention programs, to recruit and retain community stakeholders in the fight against drug overdose, and to help translate research into actionable interventions.

  • Kentucky Substance Use Research and Education (K-SURE)

    The integrated K-SURE collaborative regularly produces data reports/briefs to identify hot spots and drug threats within the state of Kentucky. These data reports/briefs inform public health and public safety prevention and response activities and are instrumental in funding of other Kentucky State Police drug-interdiction grants.

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  • Kentucky Access to Recovery Evaluation

    Access to Recovery (ATR) is a linkage strategy supported by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that was implemented by Kentucky in 2019 to link vulnerable populations in 25 counties with opioid and/or stimulant substance use disorders (SUDs) to recovery support services (RSSs), such as evidence-based recovery housing, transportation, and employment, and other community services using a voucher system and, if needed, relink clients to RSSs following resumption of illicit substance use. Priority clients set by Kentucky Access to Recovery (KATR) to receive RSSs are those recently released from incarceration, veterans, and those who are pregnant/postpartum or parenting children under the age of 18.

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  • Kentucky Overdose Data to Action Prevention Programs

    The Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center, as a bona fide agent for the Kentucky Department for Public Health, collaborates with state, university, and community partners to implement the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) prevention efforts.

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  • Kentucky Overdose Data to Action Surveillance Programs

    The Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center, as a bona fide agent for the Kentucky Department for Public Health, collaborates with state, university, and community partners to implement the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) surveillance strategies, which includes timely analysis of drug overdose emergency department encounters, fatal drug overdoses using multiple data sources, and an innovative public health surveillance strategy using remnant serum and/or urine samples from patients treated at the University of Kentucky Medical Center Emergency Department for suspected drug overdoses. KyOD2A is a five-year grant that began implementation in September 2023.

  • Opioid Data Lab

    Opioid Data Lab: Understanding Overdose through Scientific Innovation focuses on developing a methodology for classifying drug poisoning deaths (i.e., drug overdose deaths) as single- versus polydrug poisoning deaths and developing analytical tools that can be used by surveillance epidemiologists and researchers.

  • STIMuLINK

    Using traditional and novel statistical approaches to analyze these cohorts, STIMuLINK will examine risk/protective factors predictive of fatal stimulant overdose using the social ecological model as the principal framework.

  • FindMentalHealthNowKY.org

    This project created a mental health treatment locator website that includes three core components: a dynamic near-real-time registry of Kentucky mental health treatment facilities and availability; a robust directory of social service provider organizations and agencies across the Commonwealth; and a repository for informational documents and tools for education related to mental health.