HRC Blog2021-06-09T00:21:36-04:00

KyHRC in the News!

Check out this great article about our very own Lynne Huckleberry giving Narcan training and distribution to local bars. Everyone should be trained and carry Narcan! By Conroy Delouche Aug 30, 2022 LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Businesses known for late-night fun are getting serious about saving lives. Tuesday night, employees at Baxter's 942 Bar & Grill in the Highlands got a lesson on how to administer Naloxone, or Narcan. Narcan can be used if there is a known or suspected opioid overdose emergency, and save a life. "If you're still actively using, we don't want you to die," Lynne Huckleberry said. Huckleberry went to Baxter's to train bar managers there and from Outlook Inn. She is a member of the Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition. According to its website, KyHRC works to help in reducing overdoses, overdose deaths and the transmission of HIV and Hepatitis C. Huckleberry said that's her mantra of harm reduction is to meet those struggling with addiction where they are in their journey. It's a cause near to her heart because she witnessed her son's addiction impact his life. "I was so ashamed, and I felt like I was just a terrible terrible mother. Well, I found out there's a lot of people like me who didn't find help like I did," she said. Since turning the corner on his addiction, Huckleberry says her son has stayed clean for years. But the battle isn't over for thousands of Kentucky families, which is why Huckleberry continues dedicating her time working with those [...]

International Overdose Awareness Day Rally!

August 31st is International Overdose Awareness Day. This year, we will not just remember those we have lost, or call for awareness. We will turn our pain into power and demand no more drug war, no more overdose and no more harm in KY! Join VOCAL-KY and allied organizations and individuals calling for immediate and long-term policy changes that will save and improve lives in Louisville and across the state by investing in proven public interventions, housing and services for those in need, and replacing incarceration with care. RSVP HERE: https://vocalky.ourpowerbase.net/civicrm/event/register?id=7&reset=1  Join us to demand justice, compassion and love for our city and state! DATE: Wednesday, August 31TIME: 4:00 - 6:00pmPLACE: Injustice Square (aka Jefferson Sq Park), corner of Liberty and 6th St. marching to Muhammad Ali Center.

The Two Simple Edicts of Successful Addiction Treatment – New York Times Op-ed

The Two Simple Edicts of Successful Addiction Treatment Aug. 15, 2022 By Beth Macy HICKORY, N.C. — On a chilly spring evening in 2021, Tim Nolan set up a portable addiction clinic next to a McDonald’s dumpster, and he waited. His desk was the dashboard of his gray Prius, his office this parking lot, which smelled like frying oil and trash. The hatchback of the nurse practitioner’s car was full of hepatitis C testing kits, clean needles, fentanyl test strips — and pizzas. Mr. Nolan’s first appointment of the night was with a middle-aged factory worker named Sammy, who showed up late in a dented old Ford and high on heroin, a broken face mask dangling from one ear. “I’m ready to get off that damn needle,” Sammy told him. “Why do you want to?” Mr. Nolan asked, gently. Sammy’s eyes welled. “Sorry, man,” he said. He’d been imprisoned twice, he explained, most recently on drug-related charges. While incarcerated, Sammy faced an additional charge for assaulting a jail guard during what appeared to be a full-blown psychotic episode that Sammy blamed on abrupt withdrawal. A year earlier, his fiancée’s 18-year-old son was killed. He’d just been fired from his job driving a forklift following a fight. Sammy wiped away tears and vowed to stop injecting heroin before he started his next job. “I’ve never even said all this to anyone.” Sammy’s experience illuminates why America’s overdose crisis has only continued to worsen: We are a nation that, a quarter-century into the worst addiction crisis in [...]

VOCAL-KY Works to End Drug Overdoses in Kentucky

Author: Alexis Jones August 3, 2022 LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Members of Vocal Kentucky gathered at Jefferson Square Park Wednesday to share their "roadmap to ending drug overdoses." Their plan includes funding for housing, better access to services and treatment and stopping the criminalization of drug use. "When you provide people the tools, the education, the support and environment to be able to take care of themselves, they do," member Jennifer Twyman said. According to a report from the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, 2,250 people died from drug overdoses in 2021 in the commonwealth. One inmate at Louisville Metro Correction also died from a suspected fentanyl overdose in July. "Why did the numbers go up? Why did the overdosing numbers go up when we have access? Why are children overdosing and we're not talking about," another member, Shreeta Waldon, said. Members of Vocal Kentucky said they can't watch another person die from drug abuse. The group's director, Shameka Parrish-Wright, said she is going to meet with Mayor Greg Fischer Thursday to create a plan to end overdosing in the city.

What is Harm Reduction – Today Show Online ft. KyHRC ED Shreeta Marie

July 11, 2022, 9:37 AM PDT By Kerry Breen As the overdose crisis in the United States continues — more than 100,000 people died of overdose in 2021, a new record — the practice of harm reduction is gaining new traction as a possible solution to the crisis. Harm reduction in the United States is widely acknowledged to have begun in the late 1980s, when syringe exchange programs were established at the state and local level. Since then, decades of research have shown that harm reduction techniques are an important way to help people who use drugs. What is harm reduction? Harm reduction is broadly defined by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as an approach that "emphasizes engaging directly with people who use drugs" and works to "improve the physical, mental and social wellbeing of those served" by offering various forms of care. José Benitez, the executive director at Prevention Point, a harm reduction program in Philadelphia, called the approach "a philosophy" that "strives to meet people where they are." "Some people are ready for treatment, some people are not, and no matter where they are in that spectrum, harm reduction is to meet people where they are," Benitez said. " We're not so focused all the time on the drug use, (which we see as) just part of people’s lives. We really get to focus on the healthcare issues ... in a non-judgmental fashion." Harm reduction doesn't apply to just drug use: Experts interviewed for this story also said the tenets [...]

Landmark Recovery – Remember With Us Campaign

International Overdose Awareness Day is coming up and Landmark Recovery is creating a campaign to commemorate the people we've lost. If you've lost someone, and would like to be a part of this campaign to honor their memory, email [email protected] the following: Digital headshot/photo Their name and age of passing Short statement about the individual. Deadline for submissions is AUG 15. No one's ever really gone.

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