BrightView is expanding its services to Kentucky, offering methadone alternatives in Lexington, Paris, and Louisville. BrightView offers maintenance medications such as Suboxone, buprenorphine, Vivitrol, and Subutex. These medications are all considered alternatives to methadone. For almost five years now, BrightView has been providing southwest Ohio and the surrounding cities of Columbus, Toledo, and Cleveland with quality addiction treatment. In all, BrightView presently has 19 locations across the state of Ohio. When thinking about the next move for BrightView Health, it was the right choice for the organization to make its way to the Bluegrass State. BrightView’s Chief Medical Officer, and one of its founders, was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. Dr. Shawn Ryan, says that the move to Kentucky, especially Lexington and Louisville, “is a significant part of my vision for our company and means the world to me to be able to bring world class treatment to my hometown.” According to Kentucky’s Office of Drug Control Policy, overdose deaths of Kentucky residents, regardless of where the death occurred, and non-residents who died in Kentucky, totaled 1,333 as reported to the Office of Vital Statistics in June 2019. Jefferson County (Louisville) and Fayette County (Lexington) are the leading counties in Kentucky for heroin related overdose deaths as of 2018. These counties are followed closely by Kenton County, which is just due south of the city of Cincinnati and includes Covington, Kentucky. Also, as of 2018; Jefferson County and Fayette County are the leading counties in Kentucky for fentanyl related overdose deaths. Covid-19 has also had a direct impact on the opioid epidemic. Fayette County substance use Intervention Program Coordinator Amy Baker was quoted in an article on Kentucky.com saying, “addiction is often described as being a disease of isolation, which is why many people in recovery depend on in-person support to stay sober. Taking that option out of the equation and replacing it with idle time and forced solitude, then, can pose an especially dangerous threat.”Now, a little more than two months later, her dismal projections were confirmed. Fatal overdoses in Kentucky’s second largest city, Lexington, have increased at least 42 percent compared to this time last year. (kentucky.com) BrightView realizes that it is important to go where the help is needed the most. On the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) facilities locator, there are currently 32 registered “substance use” facilities in Lexington, KY (Fayette County) and 30 registered “substance use” facilities in Louisville, KY (Jefferson County). It is important to note that these numbers do not represent all of the treatment centers in either of those cities, and is most likely underreported because not every addiction treatment center is on this universal “treatment locator”, but it is indicative of the need for more services. The number of people in Kentucky seeking all types of treatment has risen in recent years, as there are nearly 25,000 people enrolled in some type of program on a given day, which is up from less than 20,000 just a few years prior.* By opening BrightView centers in Louisville, Lexington, and Paris, this opens the opportunity for people to have access to the best evidence based practices and wrap around services as well as alternatives to methadone. * https://addiction-treatment-services.com/resource-directory/kentucky/
