Children’s Home of Northern Kentucky (CHNK) received a $35,000 grant award from Greater Cincinnati Foundation in support of CHNK’s outpatient addiction treatment services for youth.
Specifically, the funding will offset expenses related to expanding CHNK’s intensive outpatient program (IOP) into Boone County.
“At this point in Kentucky, it’s not about who is impacted by the drug epidemic and who isn’t. We all are,” commented Rick Wurth, CHNK Chief Executive Officer
.
“It’s now simply a matter of coming together as a community to be a part of the solution. This gift from Greater Cincinnati Foundation will have an impactful role in that here in Northern Kentucky.”
The grant award reflects funding from the Andrew S. Espy Fund and the Arthur C. Hengelbrok, Jr. Fund; both are Field of Interest Funds of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation.
CHNK first launched adolescent addiction treatment services in 2015. Many of the youth in need of addiction treatment come to CHNK with a co-occurring mental disorder. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reported in its 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health that 1.1 million adolescents had a substance use disorder. Of those adolescents, an estimated 333,000 youth (aged 12 to 17) experienced both a substance use disorder and major depressive episode in the previous year.
CHNK is now working to find funders willing to help expand its outpatient services headquarters in downtown Covington; CHNK rents space in Toebben Companies’ Fifth Street Center but needs at least 1,000 more square feet to accommodate the number of youth being referred for treatment.
“Our outpatient services grew by 75% from 2016 to 2017; we provided over 8,000 behavioral healthcare services to outpatient clients last year alone,” said Wurth. “This investment from Greater Cincinnati Foundation and others like it empowers CHNK to meet the growing demand for care.”
If you know someone in need of adolescent addiction treatment, you are encouraged to call CHNK’s referral hotline at 1.844.YES.CHNK (937.2465).
