A nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism

HIRT community update provides sobering statistics, outlines strategy to battle region’s heroin crisis


By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor

More than 100 people from throughout Northern Kentucky came together Monday evening to get an update on the region’s ongoing heroin crisis.

State Rep.-elect Kim Moser, delivered the state of the region address at Monday's community update on the region's heroin crisis at the St. Elizabeth Training and Education Center in Erlanger. Moser is the director of the Northern Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy (photos by Mark Hansel).

State Rep.-elect Kim Moser, delivered the state of the region address at Monday’s community update on Northern Kentucky’s heroin crisis at the St. Elizabeth Training and Education Center in Erlanger. Moser is the director of the Northern Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy (photos by Mark Hansel).

The Northern Kentucky Heroin Impact Response Task Force hosted The Road to Recovery, A Community Update and Conversation at the St. Elizabeth Training and Education Center in Erlanger.

A panel of health care professionals, law enforcement officers, treatment specialists and other stakeholders talked about everything from prevention and solutions to recovery and economic impact.

State Rep.-elect Kim Moser, R-Taylor Mill, who is director of the Northern Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy provided a “State of the Region” update.

“I really do appreciate that you all took the time to come out tonight and to learn more about what’s going on in our community,” Moser said. “You’re going to hear from a variety of community partners tonight on the impact of heroin and some of the solutions that have been initiated.”

Moser started with some sobering statistic, including the announcement this week that nationwide, heroin deaths have now exceeded deaths due to shootings.

“So we continue to hear negative impacts of the heroin issue and we continue to see our friends and family die from this epidemic,” Moser said.

Other statistics cited include that there are 78 deaths reported each day as a result of heroin use in the United States.  In 2014, 10,574 people died as a result of heroin use and in 2015, the number increased to 12,990.

Kenton County Sheriff Chuck Korzenborn, left and State Sen. John Schickel, R-Union were among those in attendance at Monday's community update.

Kenton County Sheriff Chuck Korzenborn, left, and State Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, were among those in attendance at Monday’s community update.

When deaths from opioids and other drugs are included, the number increases to more than 30,000.

In Kentucky, there were 1,248 deaths due to overdose in 2015, and of those, 420 cases included the use of fentanyl, either alone or mixed with heroin.

In Northern Kentucky, the overdose rates have increased from 745 in 2014 to 1,168 last year. Through October, the number is 1,386 for this year, and Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties have three of the five highest rates in the state.

“So, you get the trend,” Moser said. “We are continuing to see a huge rate of overdoses.”

The good news, Moser said, is that Narcan is saving lives and the collaboration among community partners is at an all-time high.

Judges and court systems are working with jail treatment programs to ensure that inmates are able to participate in treatment and are often making it a condition of their sentence.

Jail substance abuse program directors are working with physicians to provide medically-assisted treatment and get inmates into programs and providing behavioral health treatment.

Communitywide helplines are providing 24-hour access to assistance for those in need and prevention alliances are working with schools to recognize at-risk youth and provide early intervention.

“I’m telling you, it’s not an urban problem, it’s all of us. I would venture to say that everyone in this room knows somebody that has been touched by this, all of us do. It’s a suburban problem, it’s a rural problem as well,” Kenton County Police Chief Spike Jones, speaking about opioid addiction in NKy

Dr. Lynne Saddler, district director of health for the Northern Kentucky Health Department, spoke about the risk heroin use brings to the larger community.

“We have a real serious issue here in Northern Kentucky as a result of our heroin epidemic,” Saddler said. “When people who are injecting drugs share their equipment, they are also sharing blood-borne diseases, such as Hepatitis C, HIV (and) Hepatitis B. In addition to that they are discarding used needles and syringes into public places that puts all of us at risk.”

An increase in the already high Hepatitis C rate, which reached 1,100 diagnosed cases in 2015, also greatly adds to the risk factor for an HIV outbreak.

A nationwide analysis identified 220 counties that are vulnerable for an HIV outbreak as a result of HIV drug use. It listed four of the eight counties in the Northern Kentucky Heroin Impact Response Task Force region, including Campbell County, as at risk.

“We are in an opportunity to be able to prevent an HIV outbreak here and it is imperative that we do so,” Saddler said. “I can’t say urgently enough how much we need to be able to use the public health tool that was passed last year in the General Assembly, and that tool is syringe access exchange program.”

Kenton County Police Chief Spike Jones said there is a widely held misconception that heroin and opioid use is an urban problem.

“I’m telling you, it’s not an urban problem, it’s all of us. I would venture to say that everyone in this room knows somebody that has been touched by this, all of us do,” Jones said. “It’s a suburban problem, it’s a rural problem as well, which I found when I came to Kenton County.”

Kenton County Police Chief Spike Jones addresses the crowd at Mondays community update, Dr. Lynne Saddler district direct of health, is at left.

Kenton County Police Chief Spike Jones addresses the crowd at Mondays community update, Dr. Lynne Saddler district direct of health, is at left.

Jones, a former Covington Police Chief who spent more than 26 years with that department, said Kenton County is developing a Quick Response Team. The program will include fire safety services, a police officer and an addiction services counselor to meet with individuals who have overdosed.

The goal is to convince the individuals to get into treatment at a time when they may be more inclined to accept help.

It’s not always the first time at the door, sometimes it’s the fifth or the sixth,” Jones said. “But if you have that opportunity to save just one person it’s worth it all.”

Saddler said part of the plan going forward is to outline the next steps in the fight against addiction, and this is where community support is needed.

“Part of what we are going to do in 2017, as a coalition, is to undergo a comprehensive planning process for the following four years that are coming up,” Saddler said. “We’re going to also look at how we can best organize ourselves to implement those strategies that we are going to develop. How we can be not only effective at accomplishing that, but how we can move further, faster in Northern Kentucky.”

She encouraged those who are not already active in the effort to seek out ways to “plug themselves in” to one of the groups already working in the region.

A comprehensive source of addiction services, training, donations, data and other information is available at www.drugfreenky.org

Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com


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