Kentucky is investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in opioid settlement funds to expand addiction recovery and harm reduction services in four of the state’s most impoverished rural counties, according to a report by KFF Health News.
The Hub, a network of community centers operated by the Kentucky River District Health Department, has received $320,000 in new funding announced in April to develop a specialized program helping women who have been incarcerated reintegrate into society. The initiative also received $545,000 in 2025, facilitating expansion from two to five counties.
The network now operates in Knott, Lee, Letcher, and Owsley counties, all among the nation’s most impoverished areas. A fifth location in Perry County is planned. The program also operates The Hub on Wheels, providing mobile outreach across the district.
Each Hub offers a range of services addressing multiple barriers to recovery: peer support, food assistance, clothing, sterile syringes, naloxone, hepatitis C treatment, and wound care. The initiative is grounded in harm reduction principles designed to minimize the effects of drug use while treating participants with dignity.
“In order for anybody to sustain recovery, they have to have financial stability, they have to have transportation, and they have to have a home,” said JoAnn Fraley, the Kentucky River District Health Department’s harm reduction program coordinator and Hub initiative director. “We try to fill those gaps.”
The inaugural Hub, which launched in Beattyville in 2022, offers breakfast and lunch, a food pantry, laundry facilities, and a computer lab alongside overdose prevention services. Staff members include people in recovery, including Becky Todd, who walked three miles from jail to The Hub in April 2024 after serving sentences on drug-related charges and now works toward a bachelor’s degree in social work.
Research supports the effectiveness of such approaches. Studies show that syringe service programs increase participation in treatment and reduce transmission of HIV and hepatitis C by approximately half. In 2025, the Kentucky River Hub model was named one of 19 public health best practices by the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
Public health officials report measurable results. Scott Lockard, the Kentucky River District Health Department’s public health director, cited increases in treatment enrollment and declining communicable disease rates. “I’ve been in public health for 36 years, and it’s one of the most effective interventions I’ve seen,” Lockard said.
The grants come from Kentucky’s approximately $1 billion share of a national $57.8 billion settlement with pharmaceutical companies held responsible for fueling the opioid epidemic. However, the future of such programs faces uncertainty following a July 2024 federal executive order directing programs to cease spending settlement funds on harm reduction efforts, which the Trump administration disputed. Kentucky’s Hub funding comes from state settlement dollars rather than the targeted federal programs, but advocates worry about the broader policy direction.
Sources
- Public News Service – Kentucky
- KFF Health News coverage of opioid settlement money supporting recovery services in rural Kentucky
- White House executive order on federal funding restrictions for harm reduction programs
- Kentucky Opioid Settlement Funds information from KentuckyPolicy.org
This article was generated by AI (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001) based on source material from Public News Service – Kentucky, enriched with 2 web searches. The original source is available at https://app.publicnewsservice.org/story/opioid-settlement-money-pays-for-recovery-services-in-rural-kentucky/47bf35fa-ed2e-4b61-9a91-aaef91bb5258.
