NKY to get residential teen drug treatment (cincinnati.com)For the first time, Northern Kentucky will have residential treatment designated specifically for kids with substance use disorders.
Children's Home of Northern Kentucky will receive a $1.5 million KY Kids Recovery grant from the state to start residential substance abuse-treatment services and expand its current program called Champions, which provides community-based behavioral health services for children from sixth through 12th grades.
The next-nearest residential treatment center for kids is Teen Challenge Cincinnati in Milford, Ohio, but Ohio courts decide who may go there.
"It is so clearly evident that Northern Kentucky needs us to address youth and addiction, with a special emphasis on addiction," said Children's Home Executive Director Rick Wurth. "We are not audacious enough to think we have all of the answers. We are taking this opportunity to be a servant leader, and partner with experts."
Another agency, Necco, a foster care and families agency with an office in Florence, will receive $1.37 million to offer a comprehensive program for teens with substance abuse problems in the region and elsewhere in Kentucky.
The state plans to make a statewide announcement Monday about the recipients of 19 KY Kids Recovery grants totaling about $19 million for substance abuse treatment for kids ages 12 to 17 years old. The funding is from two pharmaceutical company settlements totaling $32 million; $19 million of that is earmarked for statewide adolescent treatment, Attorney General Jack Conway announced in January.
Necco of Kentucky Executive Director Pam Priddy said she hopes to be able to offer an array of expanded services sometime this fall.
"We hope to be able to provide services to kids in their communities, with their families," Priddy said. Necco's offerings statewide could include such programs as parenting classes with children involved, alcohol and drug education, intensive in-home work with children and their families and more, she said.
Children's Home of Northern Kentucky saw the need for intervention with adolescents whose families or who themselves have addiction problems. Its Devou Park campus in Covington is undergoing a $3.6 million renovation, funded largely by donors.
Wurth said the home entered into a memorandum of understanding with St. Elizabeth Healthcare in April to ensure it has medical experts specializing in evidence-based care for children with addictions. In addition, Wurth said, the home has been hiring people with specialized skills who will staff the program.
"This community's need is incredibly important," Wurth said. "Lives are at stake."
The home's residential services for teens with addiction will serve eight Northern Kentucky counties – Boone, Campbell, Carroll, Grant, Gallatin, Kenton, Owen and Pendleton.
"Hopefully, the funding will significantly expand treatment in the state," said Conway, who chairs the Substance Abuse Treatment Advisory Committee that selected recipients for the funds.
Wurth noted that the committee expedited "desperately needed funding" and put it into the hands of providers.
The Northern Kentucky Heroin Impact and Response Work Group formed a committee to address the limited adolescent treatment in the region and advised a continuum of care from early detection to residential treatment. "I am just elated that we have any kind of funding to Northern Kentucky," said Jim Thaxton, coordinator of the task force. "Until this, if a parent had a child under 18 with opiate addiction there was little available within 100 miles of Northern Kentucky. And we know you just can't detox and discharge someone addicted to opiates. They require inpatient treatment."
One in eight Kentucky high-school students meets the criteria for a substance abuse disorder, the release said, citing a recent report from the Substance Abuse Health and Mental Services Administration.
A 2011 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows 5.2 percent of Kentucky's high-school students reported using heroin, nearly double the national average. By the time the teens hit their senior year, use had grown to 7.7 percent, nearly 5 points higher than the U.S. average.
"It's insane. It's frightening. It's a call for alarm," Kenton District Judge Ken Easterling told The Enquirer. Chief of the Kenton County juvenile drug court, Easterling said, "I have middle-schoolers on heroin."
Conway said the state substance abuse treatment committee, which included first lady Jane Beshear, who's led efforts in substance abuse help statewide, allotted two of the largest grants to Northern Kentucky. "I pledged that some of these resources would come up there, too," Conway said.
Key to receiving money, he said, was evidence-based treatment and the ability to sustain a program.
"The applicants had to show what they're proposing actually works," Conway said.
Priddy said Medicaid coverage expansion and the changes in Kentucky health care will allow for longevity of the Necco's programs. The grant will help "build the framework" of the services for teens.
Jane Beshear was instrumental in ensuring that a large chunk of the lawsuits' settlement money went to youth treatment, Conway said.
"Kentucky has been woefully lacking in comprehensive, statewide treatment options for youth who suffer from addiction and substance abuse disorders," Gov. Steve Beshear said in a statement. "With these grants, families will now have places to turn to for help. Early detection and intervention are the keys to solving the larger problem of substance use and abuse across Kentucky."
Bonnie Hedrick, who co-chairs a leadership committee with the Northern Kentucky heroin task force, said treatment for the 12- to 17-year-olds is critical in Northern Kentucky.
"Adolescent early intervention and treatment has been a top priority for a number of years. Current services are sketchy or totally absent," said Hedrick, who is coordinator of NKY Agency for Substance Abuse Policy Board's Prevention Alliance.
"This funding is a great start toward the full establishment of a comprehensive continuum of care to prevent, mitigate or eliminate addiction in Northern Kentucky's teens and young adults." ■
Kentucky provides KY Kids Recovery grants
$17,976,992 has been recommended in funding from an available total of $19.2 million. The remaining balance will be reserved for future statewide projects and administrative oversight of recipients' expenditures. Awards will be paid through Kentucky Housing Corp. in compliance with state accounting procedures.
Source: Kentucky Substance Abuse
Treatment Advisory Committee
Grant recipients
• Children's Home of Northern Kentucky: $1.5 million. Will initiate residential substance abuse treatment services for kids 12-17 and expand Champions, community-based behavioral health treatment for children. Residential treatment will be provided on the Covington campus, serving eight Northern Kentucky counties (Boone, Campbell, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, Owen and Pendleton counties).
• Necco: $1,371,283. Serves youth and families in Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Georgia. Necco will offer a "Comprehensive Services for Youth with Substance Use Disorders" program to every county in the state from office locations including Florence.
• Boys & Girls Haven (Louisville): $267,084
• Communicare (South Central): $1,200,695
• Cumberland River Behavioral Health (Southeast): $959,775
• Four Rivers Behavioral Health (West) $315,876
• KVC Behavioral Health Care Kentucky, Inc.(Central): $2,032,998
• Kentucky River Community Care (Southeast): $686,165
• Maryhurst (Louisville): $932,928
• Methodist Home of Kentucky (Central): $542,628
• Mountain Comprehensive Care Center (Southeast): $192,720
• Our Lady of Peace (Louisville): $1,471,143
• Pathways (Northeast): $841,655
• Pennyroyal Center (West): $1,075,131
• Ramey Estep Homes (Northeast): $1,521,744
• Rivendell Behavioral Health Hospital (South Central): $24,905
• Youth of Kentucky Inc. and Youth of Kentucky, SAFY (Central):$1,089,271
• The Ridge Behavioral Health SystemBluegrass.org (Central): $1,350,008
• WestCare (Southeast): $600,982
Other settlement money will go toward:
• $500,000 to complete construction of a Recovery Kentucky center in Carter County.
• $2.5 million for almost 900 scholarships over two years to Recovery Kentucky centers.
• $560,000 to create 14 drug-free homes for people completing and transitioning out of residential substance abuse treatment programs.
• $6 million to administer and upgrade KASPER, Kentucky's electronic prescription drug monitoring program.
• $1 million to support substance abuse treatment for pregnant women by Chrysalis House in Lexington and Independence House in Corbin.
• $1.5 million to the University of Kentucky to develop best practices for adolescent substance abuse treatment providers.
• $1 million to develop a school-based substance abuse screening tool with the Kentucky Department of Education to intervene with at-risk children before they enter judicial or social services systems.
• $250,000 to create a database to evaluate outcomes of adolescent treatment.
