Calvert City Mayor Lynn Jones is working to ensure that parents and kids in his community are equipped with the tools they need to combat the dangers of opioids and other harmful substances.
Jones is working with Nikki Coursey – community health and government relations specialist at Lourdes Hospital – to host informational sessions devoted to making parents aware of the potential substance abuse dangers facing their children. The sessions, which Jones said he hopes will begin this summer, come in response to the recent death of Taylor May, the 23-year-old Calvert City resident who died March 14 as the result of an overdose on U4 (commonly known as“Pink”), a highly potent synthetic opioid. Taylor May’s brother, 18-year-old Karson May, was rushed to a local hospital for treatment in the incident.
Jones said he hopes to be proactive, and stop a problem before it becomes an epidemic.
“It touched so many families, and we’ve been watching that in our community in the last several years,” Jones said. “It just continues to escalate. We know how bad, that for our young people there’s a great deal of pressure, and there’s everything out there conceivable. … So I called Nikki (Coursey) and said ‘Nikki, I need some help. I need the expertise to bring in to my speakers and panelists who can help us to be able to look at the situation, help our families to have some sounding board and some opportunity to get some good feedback, so we can address a problem head on.”
Jones said he hoped to make the initiative and ongoing effort to open dialogue between parents and their children, as well as between families and local officials in Calvert City. While the effort is still in development, Jones is optimistic about the results.
“I want to have it when we can have the people there who can give us the best wisdom we need to go forward,” Jones said. “I don’t want to just have a meeting to have a meeting. I want families to walk away with something tangible. I want them to walk away with some hope, and I think that we’ll get this put together and that’s what we’re going to do.”
It’s what Coursey is hoping to accomplish, as well. Coursey, who coordinates various training efforts for area agencies in illicit substance awareness, said she contacted Marshall County Hospital to pool resources and “figure out where all those puzzle pieces would fit together.” Organizers felt the best place to start was with the residents at risk to the issue, she said.
“It really needs to touch those vulnerable populations like the high school,” Coursey said. “You know, these kids may see a powdery white substance and they may think it’s cocaine, but it could be this Pink. Or it could be Fentanyl, which is like a 100 times stronger than Morphine, which is what they’re seeing in eastern Kentucky or the Louisville area. … We thought it would be great to provide something at the school level first.”
Coursey said she had meetings scheduled with Marshall County School District personnel to discuss hosting a drug forum next month at Marshall County High School.
“Mercy Health is going to get this app where they can send questions in and be answered by Sheriff (Kevin) Byars – he’s committed to be part of this forum – basically anybody that the kids would need to talk to,” Coursey said. “Our ultimate idea would be to reach out to these kids, get the awareness brought to them about what substances are in the area, what to kind of look out for and provide them with the resources that they need.”
Coursey said organizers were still reaching out to partner agencies to host the forum. However, she hoped to see the forum take off at the high school first to give kids the opportunity to engage their parents to initiate the conversation before hosting the community forum later this summer. Coursey said she hoped to provide the resources for parents to recognize what the warning signs were in kids abusing illicit substances, as well as bring awareness on what substances were prevalent in the area.
“This kind of rolls into our mental behavioral health issue, too, that we have in west Kentucky,” Coursey said. “… West Kentucky actually has the highest suicide rating across our state. … That’s kind of unsettling, too. But if you don’t provide these kids with a proper coping mechanism, then they turn usually to a substance-related abuse. So a lot of it correlates with each other.”
Jones said he hoped the effort would culminate in ongoing answers, such as establishing support groups for those facing those issues at home.
No date had been set on the proposed school or community forum as of Tuesday morning. Coursey said once she had events confirmed with the school system she could begin reaching out to other agencies to establish panelists.