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Madison County Health Department tells Richmond commissioners its harm-reduction program cut local overdose-related calls and boosted syringe returns
Summary
Shannon Drummond told the Richmond City Commission that Madison County’s harm-reduction program served more than 400 people in 2024, achieved a 96% syringe return rate and saw local overdose deaths fall about 41% year-over-year; the program distributes sterile supplies, naloxone and connects people to services.
Shannon Drummond, harm-reduction program coordinator at the Madison County Health Department, told the Richmond City Board of Commissioners that the county program served more than 400 participants in 2024 and achieved a 96% syringe return rate.
The presentation, given during the commission’s public meeting, outlined clinical and public-health outcomes the program links to its services, which include sterile-syringe distribution, naloxone (overdose reversal) distribution, HIV testing, education and active referrals to housing, food, insurance and treatment providers. “We make the phone call with them. We tell them what to expect,” Drummond said, describing the program’s approach to supporting clients through concrete navigation help.
Drummond said the county disposed of more than 70,000 syringes properly last year — “most of them in Richmond, Kentucky” — and reported a roughly 41% decrease in local overdose deaths from about five per month in 2023 to about three per month in 2024. She also said Madison County saw a 29% decline in emergency medical services runs for overdoses over the same period. “So what we’re doing here is working,” she told commissioners.
Drummond gave three short client vignettes to illustrate outcomes: a person who reduced injection frequency from about 10 times a day to cessation of program use after steady reductions; a person whose emergency department visits dropped after education and safer practices; and a pregnant client who was linked to a recovery coach, entered treatment and retained custody of her child.
The coordinator emphasized that syringe services are one part of a broader recovery ecosystem and said the program pairs sterile supplies with relationship-building and referrals. She named AmeriCorps and Voices of Hope as embedded community partners and said the program is data-driven and follows recognized best practices.
Commissioners did not take formal action on the presentation; it was presented for information and community health context.
