Community Health

Just an hour’s drive from Northern Kentucky University lies Owen County, KY. With just over 10,000 residents, Owen County is a rural area with numerous lakes, streams and rolling ridges.  Residents of Owen County are almost 3 times more likely to die of a drug overdose than the rest of the United States (NORC Opioid Community Assessment, 2013 - 2017).

After a year of planning, the Owen County Collaborative Addiction Treatment Initiative launched the Owen County Recovery Services team. Care Coordinator Shanna Osborne works with the community to provide support through recovery. The Care Coordinator built trust with the community, increasing the number of clients served, and help clients navigate the intimidating and confusing process of getting care.

COVID-19 has led to doubling of the number of overdoses in Kentucky’s rural counties. But despite being in a virtual mode, Care Coordinator Shanna Osborne in Owen County connected with over 220 clients this year, referring 140 to treatment for Substance Use Disorder, and transporting many of them personally. 

Carroll-Owen County Partnership Expansion

This initiative, co-funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the State Justice Institute, supports a six-month planning phase for 21 sites to identify current gaps in prevention, treatment, and/or recovery services for individuals who encounter the criminal justice system within the target rural service area.

During the 18-month implementation phase, the sites will initiate new activities or augment existing efforts to strengthen epidemiologic surveillance and public health data infrastructure, implement effective community-level opioid overdose prevention activities, and establish or enhance public safety, public health, and behavioral health collaborations. Sites may also elect to leverage funding to expand peer recovery and recovery support services that help people start and stay in recovery.

Carroll County Care Coordinator Yvonne Poe led the Hope Bags project to provide re-entry supplies for people needing assistance. Carroll County Drug Prevention Coalition Coordinator Tammy Barrett-Wolcott and Re-entry Coordinator Donnie Dawes are working with the area schools and the Carroll County Detention Center to provide Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT) to struggling youths and detainees.

Visit the Carroll and Owen County Partnership Expansion page

Visit the Opioid-Impacted Family Support Program page

The Institute is currently working with community partners on two research projects to better understand the social determinants of health in the Northern Kentucky Region.

The Institute is working with the probate court in Butler County in Ohio and faculty in the Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice, and Organizational Leadership to determine whether outpatient probate defendants have better health outcomes than those for whom there are no outpatient probate options. 

For the second project, the Institute is working with the Cincinnati VA, the Weaver Institute for Law and Psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati, and NKU Chase College of Law to analyze how successful the veterans courts are in the tri-state region at improving healthcare outcomes and reducing recidivism.