A Paducah-based healthcare organization hopes to shrink the rate of opioid addiction in the Purchase area with help from some new training.
Four Rivers Behavioral Health Center working with addiction recovery experts from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation to open a 12-step recovery program called COR-12. The McCracken County Coroner reports a spike in fatal drug overdoses in the last year. Four River’s COR-12 director Elizabeth Fleming said the program encourages a dramatic change in participants.
“They’re learning how to rebuild relationships with family members,” Fleming said. “They’re learning how to obtain employment or keep their job. We’re seeing changes throughout their whole life.”
Fleming said the center’s goal is to reduce overdose deaths and opioid emergency room visits in the Purchase Region by 10 percent in the first year and 20 percent in the second. A $500,000 grant from the Kentucky Agency for Substance Abuse Policy will fund the program’s first year, after which COR-12 is expected to be self-sufficient.
