Northern Kentucky Overdose Fatality Review Initiative

ABSTRACT The Northern Kentucky Independent District Health Department (NKY Health) is a district health department with a service area covering Boone, Campbell, Grant, and Kenton counties in the Northern Kentucky region. Located across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, these four counties are diverse in their geographical makeup and include urban, suburban, and rural communities with a total population served, as reported by the 2020 U.S. Census, of 426,049 residents. Substance use remains a serious public health concern in Northern Kentucky. In 2022, Kentucky was 7th in the country for overdose death rates based on CDC’s Drug Overdose Mortality by State. Following this data, Kentucky has remained in the top 9 states in the country since 2014 according to the CDC. In the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC) 2023 Drug Overdose Fatality Report, Boone, Campbell and Grant counties saw a decrease in overall overdose deaths, although 2023 numbers remain higher than pre-pandemic numbers for Boone County (2020). Kenton County saw a rise in overdose deaths from 2022 to 2023. Also in this report, Kenton County was listed as 3rd of Kentucky counties where the highest counts in drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl occurred, and 5th in drug overdose deaths involving methamphetamine, as identi?ed through toxicology in 2023. With this grant, NKY Health will implement a district-wide Overdose Fatality Review (OFR) in Northern Kentucky. The makeup of the health district presents unique challenges informing a multi-county OFR and will require strategic partnerships and collaboration between multidisciplinary groups, including law enforcement, coroners’ offices, hospitals, EMS, behavioral health, advocacy groups, harm reduction, peer support agencies, and other relevant organizations. NKY Health will work closely with county officials to ensure proper representation of the diverse population throughout the health district. The primary outcome for this project is the formation of a multi-county OFR in Northern Kentucky. During the ?rst project year, NKY Health will focus on capacity building and partnership development with the goal of conducting the ?rst OFR committee meeting in the beginning of year 2. Year 3 will focus on continued improvements to the OFR process and exploring regional collaborations with neighboring OFRs. Primary activities for this project include the hiring of an OFR Facilitator at NKY Health, identi?cation of stakeholders and OFR partners, development of data-sharing agreements between OFR partners, development and implementation of a data collection tool, and development of an OFR operational manual. As a subawardee, the UK IMPACT team will design and implement a comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of the proposed OFR in increasing 1) collaborations to respond to overdose and overdose fatalities in the four-county region and state as well as 2) capacity of collaborative partners in accessing and using data to assess needs and risks, track public health trends, deploy strategies and resources, and implement promising and evidence-based practices.