Madison County updates diversion programs and opioid advisory council working on spending plan

RICHMOND, Ky. — County Attorney Jenny Hayman told the Madison County Fiscal Court on May 27 that formal and community diversion programs are producing measurable results and that the county’s opioid advisory task force is taking a cautious approach to recommending how to spend opioid settlement funds.

Hayman, who leads the county’s diversion efforts and chairs the local opioid advisory council, said Madison County partners with Baptist Health Richmond’s Thrive Center for intensive outpatient programs (IOP) and with other providers and agencies for misdemeanor diversion, inpatient placements and specialty services. Hayman described multiple referral pathways and shared outcome figures she said the court would find meaningful.

Program results Hayman summarized include 191 individuals referred from the court to Baptist Health between the 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 windows; of those, she said 120 initiated IOP. About 50 percent of those who began IOP completed what Baptist Health calls phase 1 (the most…