The Lincoln Trail District Health Department says Hardin County has received certification from the state as a Recovery Ready Community.
“It gives us a framework to look at what is going on in the community around youth prevention initiatives, substance use prevention initiatives, harm reduction, treatment, recovery support for individuals that are in recovery,” said LTDHD Harm Reduction Manager Jennifer Osborne. “It gives us an idea of what is already in place in the community and what we might see as opportunities for improvement in a community.”
Hardin County received a score of 252 points in the state’s review of the county’s application, needing 225 points for the certification.
Osborne said one of the county’s strengths is it already has a strong agency for substance abuse policy board in place to discuss recovery and prevention issues, as well as the availability of several organizations to offer services. Another strength is the partnership of several organizations and entities coming together to address the issues.
“For instance, the partnership between the health department and the Communicare regional prevention center, our partnership with the Drug Court there in Hardin County, our EMS and coroner’s office, as well as Baptist Health Hardin,” Osborne said.
One area of improvement identified was the need for a quick response team which would reach out to victims and families after a non-fatal overdose, which Osborne said is already in development in Hardin County.
Osborne said Hardin County is fortunate to have the coordination it does, something that helped the health department as they prepared their application for certification.
“Having somebody who can kind of case manage or help coordinate care for an individual, a lot of times that is a solution to some of that problem of having all of these fantastic resources but how do we get people to utilize them effectively, and that care management a lot of times helps with that problem,” Osborne said.
Learn more about the Recovery Ready Certification at rrcky.org.
