A community health initiative in rural eastern Kentucky is using pharmaceutical company settlement money to address opioid addiction not as an isolated medical condition, but as a crisis embedded in a web of poverty, housing instability, food insecurity, and unemployment. The program — called The Hub — is now operating in four of Kentucky's most impoverished counties and has drawn national attention as a replicable model for other rural regions devastated by the opioid epidemic.
In April, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman announced $320,000 would be awarded to the Kentucky River District Health Department's Hub initiative. There are now Hubs in four rural eastern Kentucky counties — Knott, Lee, Letcher, and Owsley, all of which are among the nation's most impoverished — addressing substance use disorders, housing, hunger, employment, and other challenges. The program also operates The Hub on Wheels, which provides services throughout the district.
