The number of deaths in Kentucky related to drug overdoses – having risen throughout the pandemic and spiking to 2,250 annually – fell this past year for the first time in more than five years. But what does this finding mean for Kentucky and for those working to ease the public health crisis of addiction?

Join moderator Renee Shaw for this KET Forum that delves into Kentucky’s drug addiction problem. Shaw talks with a panel of experts, including drug recovery advocates, survivors and medical care providers, to learn more about what’s working in the fight against drugs in Kentucky and whether these new findings might be cause for optimism.

Disrupting Addiction: A KET Forum
KET Monday, July 24 • 8/7 pm
Watch on-demand at KET.org and on the PBS app

Panelists appearing on the program include:

• Jimmy Cornelison, Madison County coroner
• Eric Friedlander, secretary of the KY Cabinet for Health and Family Services
• Nancy Hale, president and CEO of Operation UNITE
• Jennifer Hancock, president and CEO, Volunteers of America: Mid-States
• Bryan Hubbard, Office of the Kentucky Attorney General, executive director and chair of the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission
• Van Ingram, executive director for the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, Justice and Public Safety Cabinet
• State Rep. Kim Moser, Republican from Taylor Mill, chair of the KY House Health Services Committee
• Devin Oller, M.D., University of Kentucky College of Medicine, primary care and addiction medicine physician

The program also will feature reports on the following:

• Isaiah House Treatment Center
• Kungu Njuguna, an attorney who is recovering from alcohol and heroin addiction
• Estill County Health Department that offers a syringe-service program through its mobile clinic

KET is Kentucky’s largest classroom, where learning comes to life for more than two million people each week via television, online and mobile. Learn more about Kentucky’s preeminent public media organization at KET.org, on Twitter @KET and at facebook.com/KET.