Lexington City panel hears progress and funding needs for substance abuse intervention, naloxone outreach

At a meeting of the Lexington City Opioid Abatement Commission, staff described the Substance Abuse Intervention Program’s outreach, distribution of naloxone and needs to sustain and expand services amid a waning federal grant.

The program presentation, delivered to the commission by program staff and outreach coordinators, said the city-run effort is funded in part by a four-year SAMHSA grant that provides naloxone, training and evaluation support; program presenters reported 177 fatal overdoses in 2023 and 120 in 2024. "We saw... about a 32 percent decrease," a presenter said while summarizing the most recent year-to-year figures.

The presentation outlined two primary goals: buy and distribute naloxone kits across the community and provide brief naloxone training to first responders and members of the public. Program staff described a "nontraditional" outreach strategy that takes naloxone and training directly to sober-living houses, recovery clubs, shelters and high-risk commercial corridors, and credited partnerships with the Fayette County Health Department, University of Kentucky…