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Hardin County coroner reports rise in prescription-drug overdoses; Quick Response team expands outreach and seeks grants
Summary
The county coroner reported 312 cases across January–March 2025, including multiple overdoses and suicides; the county's Quick Response team has made referrals, distributed Narcan and applied for opioid-related grants to expand outreach.
The Hardin County Coroner's Office reported its first-quarter caseload and detailed a growing pattern of fatal overdoses involving prescription medications during the county fiscal court meeting on May 13.
The coroner reported 106 cases in January (three accidental deaths, two of them overdoses), 90 cases in February (three accidents, one a flood-related drowning) and 116 cases in March (eight accidents, seven of which were drug overdoses). "The overdoses we're seeing here aren't our usual methamphetamines, designer opioids; they are prescription medication drugs," the coroner said, summarizing toxicology findings that increasingly show medications such as duloxetine, pregabalin and prescription opioids. The office noted several suicides across the quarter and one pending March case awaiting specialized state toxicology testing.
The coroner also described the county’s Quick Response program, which receives referrals from Hardin County EMS. As of January the team had 27 referrals, had made contact with eight of those referrals, and had referred six people to treatment. The office has delivered four care bags that contain fentanyl and xylazine test strips, Narcan, and information on local treatment resources. The Quick Response team has distributed 10 Narcan boxes and coordinated Narcan training with the Lincoln Trail District Health Department.
Partnerships to expand outreach include StepWorks (which provided a full-time peer support specialist to assist door-to-door outreach at no cost to the county) and CoreData (proposed part-time outreach liaison pending grant funding). The coroner said the office received Kentucky Opioid Abatement Fund grant funding and had applied for an Ohio Deflection mini-grant for $1,000 to support programming.
The court and meeting participants recognized the emotional difficulty of the coroner’s work and acknowledged the community outreach and treatment referrals the Quick Response team is generating.
What the coroner asked of the court The coroner’s office requested continued support for community outreach and training and noted the team will hold a community training session at the Goodwill Center later that week.
