The Barren, Hart and Metcalfe Allies for Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition and T.J. Regional Health have been awarded grant funding to buy 960 doses of Narcan and 15 Opioid Rescue Kits. The Narcan is available on request to anyone in Barren, Hart and Metcalfe counties.

Life-saving tools to help reduce drug-related overdoses are coming to Barren, Hart and Metcalfe counties.

T.J. Regional Health and the Barren, Hart and Metcalfe Allies for Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition recently received about $30,000 in grant funding to buy 960 doses of naloxone and 15 opioid rescue kits.

The harm reduction grants comes from funding allotted by the federal government to the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, which awards the funds.

Naloxone, more commonly referred to as Narcan, is a nasal spray that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

The Narcan doses awarded to T.J. Regional Health and ASAP are available to the public for free upon request.

Daniel Bragg, ASAP coordinator, said the Narcan doses and opioid rescue kits are valuable resources to support the coalition’s efforts to promote education, prevention and treatment of substance abuse.

“No one wants to die from an overdose and in today’s world you don’t have to be an addict to overdose,” Bragg said. “You can unknowingly take too much of a medicine you were prescribed or come in contact with fentanyl incidentally and end up in a state of opioid overdose.”

Bragg said ASAP plans to make the opioid rescue kits available in businesses and community organizations.

The kits contain Narcan with detailed instructions on how and when to administer it and a CPR mask that acts as a breathing aid for someone suffering an overdose.

While Narcan is available over the counter, it can prove costly to those without access to the free doses available through this grant, Bragg said.

“Whether you think you need it or not, Narcan is kind of like a fire extinguisher for your home, it’s there if you need it and it can buy you some vital time to seek life-saving care,” Bragg said. “We’ve had a pretty good outcry from people wanting these rescue kits.”

The project is being implemented amid efforts across the state to raise awareness of drug prevention and treatment and reverse a climbing number of fatal overdoses.

The Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy reported 2,135 overdose deaths in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available.

That number represents a decrease from the death toll in 2021, but is the first decrease of fatalities in four years.

Barren, Metcalfe and Hart counties combined for close to 20 of those reported fatal overdoses in 2022.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid many times more powerful than heroin, was present in the majority of the overdose deaths reported in the state.

In the broader southcentral Kentucky region, the Barren River District Health Department has given out 1,189 naloxone kits from April 2019 to June 2022.

“With the increase of fentanyl in our area, you can overdose on accident or have drugs that you don’t know what they are, so the access to (Narcan) is vital,” Bragg said.

– To request Narcan or learn more information, contact Bragg at (270) 651-4520 or daniel.bragg@tjsamson.org.