The Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center, as a bona fide agent for the Kentucky Department for Public Health, is collaborating 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 prevention strategies include the integration of prescription drug monitoring program (Ky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting [KASPER]) data into electronic health records to inform clinical opioid prescribing decision-making, integration of state and local prevention and response efforts including support for local health department interventions and provision of community technical assistance, timely linkage to SUD treatment facilities with available openings through our web-based FindHelpNowKY.org, establishment of a perinatal quality collaborative to enhance substance use disorder (SUD) prenatal and perinatal care and improve maternal and infant outcomes, partnership with public safety (Kentucky State Police) on joint public health and safety data sharing and analysis to inform public health interventions and law enforcement interdiction as well as support of their Angel Initiative, development and evaluation of a bystander SUD intervention training targeting young adults, and establishment of a peer-to-peer learning network for other states to strengthen their efforts to rapidly link individuals to SUD treatment facilities with available openings.

Through improved surveillance and targeted evidenced-based and evidence-informed interventions, KyOD2A hopes to impact inappropriate opioid prescribing, opioid misuse and opioid use disorders, patient standard of care, referrals to SUD treatment and sustained recovery, and fatal and nonfatal overdoses, to improve Kentuckians' health outcomes.

Originally listing only Kentucky treatment facilities, the FindHelpNow treatment locator has expanded to a national platform. The KIPRC team is partnering with other states and jurisdictions and sharing existing software and/or offering technical assistance in areas such as partnership participation, marketing and development, and onboarding.

FindHelpNow and its website FindHelpNow.org, a near-real-time substance use disorder treatment locator, were created by the University of Kentucky’s College of Public Health’s Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center, a bona fide agent for the Kentucky Department for Public Health, in partnership with the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, the Kentucky Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities, and the KY HELP Statewide Call Center.

• WEBSITE: FindHelpNow.org

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.

The launch of the KyPQC on October 22, 2019, at Churchill Downs brought together healthcare professionals, delivery hospitals, insurers, advocacy groups, national organizations, and other stakeholders to decrease maternal mortality and neonatal abstinence syndrome rates and improve maternal and infant health outcomes in the Commonwealth.

KyPQC aims to make Kentucky a great place for every woman to have a baby and a great place for every baby to be born.

• WEBSITE: https://kypqc.org/

The Drug Overdose and Technical Assistance Core (DOTAC) promotes the integration of state and local drug overdose prevention resources, interventions, and capacity building, which is critical for developing effective and organized response efforts on the local, regional, and state levels.

DOTAC supports local health departments, community coalitions, and state and local agencies in their efforts to address substance misuse, abuse, and overdose.

DOTAC staff members collaborate with communities to increase access to local drug-related data results, timely analytical results, and drug overdose prevention resources including controlled substance prescribing data results, drug-related injury and fatality trends, and community-based program development and capacity building.

• FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/kentuckydop

The Rural Center of Excellence supports evidence-based, evidence-informed, and promising practice-based programs and interventions to prevent and treat substance use disorders in rural communities in the context of recovery housing. Efforts are focused on building a comprehensive online recovery housing portal to connect people to recovery housing with available openings, educational information, and training opportunities to increase knowledge of, access to, and quality of recovery housing within rural areas nationwide.

• Program Website: https://www.fletchergroup.org/rcoe/

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 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.

The goal of this website is to provide near-real-time availability of treatment openings for substance use disorder (SUD) facilities across Kentucky. This user-friendly and easy-to-understand online referral-based intervention can improve clinical workflow and increase timely access to SUD treatment and information.

This goal is achieved by providing SUD treatment facilities with an administrative dashboard, allowing owners and operators to create and manage a profile page for each of their locations. 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.

• WEBSITE: FindHelpNowKy.org
• FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/FindHelpNowKY/
• TWITTER: https://twitter.com/findhelpnowky
• INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/findhelpnowky/
• Data request/questions, contact mail@findhelpnowky.org

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.

With the establishment of the Drug Overdose Technical Assistance Core (DOTAC), this program 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. DOTAC 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 Enforcement (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. Through OD2A funds, the maintenance of the K-SURE collaborative will continue and reports/briefs will continue to be produced and disseminated. Outcomes include improved coordination of public health and public safety drug-related efforts; increased use of shared data to inform and enhance integrated public health/public safety prevention and response activities; and improved community and state utilization of evidence-based approaches to prevention, intervention, and referral to treatment.

Angel Initiative

Kentucky State Police established the Angel Initiative pilot program in 2017 with two posts and went statewide in April 2018 in all 16 KSP posts covering all 120 counties in Kentucky. All individuals entering a KSP post that seek substance use disorder treatment interact with a post representative (victim advocate, social worker, victim advocate, or KSP officer) who searches FindHelpNowKY.org for a treatment facility with an opening. Transport to the facility is then arranged. KyOD2A will support the overall coordination and evaluation of the Angel Initiative in all 16 posts and support Angel victim advocates that refer individuals to SUD treatment. Improved coordination of public health and public safety drug-related efforts will assist in improving community and state utilization of evidence-based approaches to prevention, intervention, and referral to treatment; Increased community leveraged resources for SUD prevention.

Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)

CIT is a best practice model for intervention with persons experiencing a mental health crisis or who are under the influence of drugs. CIT includes specific training on mental health diagnoses, psychiatric medications, drug use, mental health law, cross-cultural sensitivity, and verbal de-escalation skills. KyOD2A will support training of law enforcement, who will then return to their respective posts to train other officers. Increasing the number of CIT-trained officers will help improve community and state utilization of evidence-based approaches to prevention, intervention, and referral to treatment.

Find Recovery Housing

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.

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.

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.

The Opioid Data Lab: Understanding Overdose through Scientific Innovation project focuses on methodology for polysubstance drug overdose identification and reporting.

STIMuLINK identifies risk/protective factors for stimulant-involved deaths that are actionable, for the development or adaptation of current prevention and intervention efforts.