PUBLIC HEALTH
be effective. PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
THE PROBLEM
Drugs We want a Louisville where everyone and every community thrives.
Together we can create a Louisville where every person can have a
healthy and fulfilling life and reach their full potential if we meet
these challenges at every level of ou r community, including in our
homes, with family and friends, at work, in our largest institutions,
and within government.
By almost any measure, we are living through what the CDC has
called the worst drug crisis in America’s history. Like much of the
country and the region, opioid and other drug use in Louisville has
increased over the past five years with devastating results. In 2011,
there were 132 overdose deaths in Louisville with a rate of 18.2
deaths per 100,000. In 2016 there were 312 overdose deaths with
a rate of 43.0. Hospitalizations and emergency room visits due to
severe acute drug poisoning rose dramatically from 2,830 visits in
2012 to 4,437 visits in 2016. Substance use disorder and overdose
impacts every neighborhood. In 2016, Metro Emergency Medical
Services (EMS) performed overdose runs in every single Louisville
Metro ZIP Code, without exception.
Tobacco
The top three causes of death in Louisville from 2011-2015 – can-
cer, heart disease, and chronic lower respiratory disease – all have
smoking as a common risk factor. While Louisville and the United
States have the same rate of heart disease death, Louisville has a
much higher rate of cancer, making it our leading cause of death.
Louisville’s average adult smoking rate from 2013 to 2016 was
24.8 percent, well above the national average of 17.9 percent. Ac-
cording to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS),
although the smoking prevalence has been declining both in Louis-
ville and nationwide, the smoking prevalence of Louisville has re-
mained consistently higher than the nation’s by about seven percent.
Smoking has been declining among students from grades 6-12
in Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), according to JCPS’s
annual Safe and Drug Free Schools Survey. However, the survey
did not ask about e-cigarette use. According to the CDC National
Youth Tobacco Survey, the use of e-cigarettes among young people
has surpassed the use of conventional cigarettes since 2011.
Alcohol
Alcohol misuse also remains a problem in the United States and in
Louisville. The age-adjusted alcohol-induced death rates in Louis-
ville are consistently higher than state and national rates. Louisville
had its highest age-adjusted death rate in 2015 at 12.8 per 100,000,
compared to 7.6 in 2011.
From January 2015 through June 2017, there were alcohol re-
lated hospitalizations in every Louisville ZIP Code, with heavier
concentrations in the west and southwest. Binge drinking occurs
throughout Louisville with heavier pockets in university areas and
in the east and southeast portions of the county.
Coming Together for Hope, Healing and Recovery makes specific
recommendations for evidence-based best practices to address sub-
stance use disorder in Louisville over the next two years. Specific
organizations and individuals throughout the community have
stepped up to champion each of the plan’s 10 goals.
When we come together we can foster hope, healing, and re-
covery in Louisville. The Hope goals aim to arm our young people
with the skills that allow them to avoid substance use and addic-
tion. The Healing goals focus on harm reduction to tackle with
the immediate effects of substance use and improve the treatment
system in Louisville. The Recovery goals strive to aid people in the
process of overcoming substance use disorder and to manage the
chronic disease for life.
The goals are:
Hope
1. Prevent and Reduce Youth Substance Use. Our plan calls for
establishing a county-wide coalition in Louisville to develop a
12-month action plan to prevent and reduce youth substance
use. One Love Louisville workgroup of the Metro Office of
Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods will champion this goal’s
implementation.
2. Increase Trauma Informed Care. Research conducted over
the past 20 years points to just how much damage such toxic
stressors as abuse, neglect and family dysfunction can cause, not
only in early childhood, but throughout life. The plan advocates
assessing current initiatives in Louisville that work with young
people and identify opportunities for organizational collabo-
ration and initiate resiliency training in at least 50 percent of
Louisville’s youth-serving organizations. BOUNCE, a coalition
of 16 Louisville agencies working to help our children develop
resiliency and grit, will champion this goal.
3. Reduce Stigma. We must promote public understanding of
substance use disorder as the chronic brain illness that it is. We
must also reach out to those caught in its web and publicize
access to crisis support. The plan calls for developing a public
health social media campaign for Louisville to raise community
awareness. The Louisville Metro Department of Public Health
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JUNE 2018
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