Dive Brief:
- GetHelpLex.org provides information on 130 Kentucky providers for drug addiction.
- Website visitors can fill out a questionnaire to narrow down treatment services.
- A Lexington-based nonprofit group that includes family members of addicts and medical professionals, Voices of Hope, launched the website.
Dive Insight:
The website includes a map of providers and programs in the state. The list can be narrowed down by factors, such as the age and sex of the patient and type of payment being used. Searches can include inpatient or outpatient services as well as only free services.
Shelly Elswick, co-founder of Voices of Hope, said the website is not meant to replace professional assessment, but rather helps to provide information on places to go.
David Maynard, a chemical dependency expert at the Univerisity of Kentucky helped to start the project by providing a list of addiction programs. Lexington's Substance Abuse and Violence Intervention Program provided funding.
Drug overdose deaths were up 30% in Lexington last year, and up 7.6% overall in the state, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. Legislation efforts that went into effect last year include SB 192, which increased penalties for dealing and selling heroin, and added $34 million towards the state's addiction treatment system.
Another law expanded access to naloxone that can reverse an opioid overdose.