Thursday marked International Overdose Awareness Day. The Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy says more than 2,100 Kentuckians died last year because of an overdose – a five percent decrease from the year prior. 90 percent of those deaths were from opioids.
Sharon Walsh is the director of the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research at UK. She’s helping lead the school’s HEALing Communities Study, which is working to provide more accessible treatment and education options across the state.
“There's a lot of stigma and misunderstanding around the treatments themselves and how they work,” Walsh said. “I think the HEALing Communities project has been an opportunity to actually raise awareness around these issues and shine lights on some of these barriers.”
Specifically, the study has been able to increase access to life-saving medication like naloxone across the 16 counties involved. More than 86,000 units of naloxone have been distributed to the counties since April 2020.
Walsh said they’ve been able to hone in on what communities are most in need of by working with local institutions.
“We could talk with them about where they think the touchpoints are in the community for people who are impacted by opioid use disorder,” Walsh said. “Homeless shelters, mobile outreach, vans, homeless encampments, things like that.”
Walsh expects results from the first wave of the study to be published soon.
