Former Kentucky governor lays out Recovery Kentucky model at Burke County forum

Former Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher described the Recovery Kentucky model and a broader "recovery ecosystem" at a community forum hosted in Morganton by Olive Branch Ministry and Burke County Public Health.

Fletcher, founder of the Fletcher Group, told the audience that the Recovery Kentucky network pairs residential recovery housing with employment, education and other social supports. "Culture will eat strategies lunch any day," he said, arguing community culture and coordinated supports matter as much as clinical care.

The model Fletcher described includes residential centers that typically accommodate about 100 to 120 people, with program stays he said ranging from roughly six months to two years. He said Recovery Kentucky ultimately built 14 centers, that roughly 60% of beds were reserved for people entering from the criminal justice system, and that the University of Kentucky Center on Alcohol and Drug Research has collected 13 years of outcome data on the program.

Why it matters:…