‘Disrupting Addiction: A KET Forum’ premieres Monday, July 24, to discuss the work being done to ease this public-health crisis

By Heather Close Published July 24, 2023 DRUGS, EVENTS, FEATURED, HEALTH BUSINESS, HEALTH POLICY, YOUR HEALTH

Kentucky Health News

According to the state’s annual Overdose Fatality Report, 2,135 Kentuckians died from a drug overdose in 2022. That was 5 percent fewer than in 2021, but many counties reported an increase in such deaths.

Kentucky Educational Television is airing a program that includes a panel of survivors, drug-recovery experts and providers about the public-health crisis of addiction and the ongoing work to ease it.

“Disrupting Addiction: A KET Forum” premieres Monday, July 24, at 8 p.m. ET on KET. It will be aired 21 more times on various days, times and channels through Aug. 9. To see the list of dates and times the program will air go to https:// ket.org/program/ket-forums/. It can also be viewed on the website KET.org.

The panelists include: Jimmy Cornelison, Madison County coroner; Eric Friedlander, secretary of the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services; Jennifer Hancock, president and CEO, Volunteers of America Mid-States; Bryan Hubbard, executive director and chair of the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission in the attorney general’s office; Van Ingram, executive director of the state Office of Drug Control Policy in the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet; State Rep. Kim Moser, R-Taylor Mill, chair of the House Health Services Committee; and Dr. Devin Oller, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, primary care and addiction medicine physician.

The program will also feature reports from Isaiah House Treatment Center; Kungu Njuguna, an attorney who is recovering from alcohol and heroin addiction; and the Estill County Health Department, which now offers a syringe-service program through a mobile clinic after being shut down for several years.