Rapid Implementation and Technical Assistance (RITA 2.0) to Expand Access to MOUD in County Jails

Kentucky’s ongoing overdose crisis is exacerbated by signi?cant racial, economic, and geographic disparities and associated stigma at individual, service provider, and structural levels that hinder effective responses. Local stakeholders, including counties and county jails, often struggle to allocate resources efficiently and implement evidence-based overdose prevention strategies that account for contextual social determinants of opioid use, including stigma that inhibits help-seeking. The lack of tailored, community-speci?c support and guidance has resulted in inequities, where solutions that work in some communities do not address the unique needs of others. To effectively combat this crisis and ensure long-term, equitable outcomes, there is a pressing need for a comprehensive technical assistance infrastructure that can provide customized implementation support and build cross-sector connections to align the OUD prevention and treatment continuum of care in community-speci?c contexts. The RITA Hub at the University of Kentucky aims to ?ll this gap by offering tailored guidance to counties and state grantees/applicants using opioid abatement dollars for prevention strategies and to county jails expanding MOUD access. By drawing on expertise from the HCS, the RITA Hub will help communities allocate resources efficiently, adopt proven prevention measures, and improve treatment access in jails, ultimately fostering more effective, equitable, and sustainable responses to the overdose crisis across the state.