The University of Kentucky has been awarded a $4.9 million contract for research and expansion of a treatment program for pregnant women with opioid use disorder.
The Perinatal Assistance and Treatment Home (PATHways) program hopes to have a dozen sites throughout central and eastern Kentucky where women can receive access to specialize help close to home.
With funds from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, Dr. Agatha Critchfield and her team will provide two elements of the PATHways program in rural Kentucky.
Women will attend pregnancy/parenting support and education groups led by a trained nurse and a peer support specialist every other week. They will also have monthly meetings via telemedicine with specialists in high-risk pregnancy, addiction care, pediatrics or substance counseling.
While no contracts have been signed, the locations will be in Morehead, Ashland, Hazard, Georgetown, Maysville, London, Middlesboro, South Williamson, Frankfort, Corbin, Winchester and Manchester.
Critchfield said half the sites will receive their care by telemedicine, the rest will have on-site group care with nurse navigators and peer support specialists.
“The idea would be that women with this disorder can stay in their local communities and receive this level of care, as opposed to having to travel,” she said.
“Few places have been hit harder by the opioid epidemic than the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” said UK President Eli Capilouto. “Rates of HIV, Hepatitis C, overdose deaths and other afflictions have soared because of this scourge. What has ravaged Kentucky is ravaging most of America today.”
Dr. Mark Newman, UK’s Executive Vice-President for Health Affairs said the issues related to addiction affect every component of our health care system.
“We look at emergency medicine, through obstetrics, through the neo-natal intensive care unit. It affects them all,” said Newman.
He added Tuesday’s announcement was great news and an opportunity to deal with a very difficult disease “in which we have not had a lot of positive over the last number of years.”
“By capitalizing on our strengths and with the dedicated work of team members in the College of Medicine and the College of Nursing, I truly believe we can make a difference in the lives of our patients,” Newman said.
The goal is simple, Critchfield said, “to improve the delivery of substance abuse services to pregnant women in in rural areas of the state, and serve as a model of care for opioid use disorder in pregnant and early parenting women on a national level.”
Launched in 2014, UK officials said PATHways has seen significant success, including fewer babies being diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome, more babies going home with their biological mothers and more mothers staying off of illicit opioids.
(Photo: Dr. Agatha Critchfield, courtesy of Kentucky Today)
By Kentucky Today
