When a Kentucky woman called an emergency department earlier this year, she wasn’t asking whether treatment was available. Through tears, she was asking whether anyone would judge her for needing it.
She had been referred to the hospital for help managing opioid withdrawal but was afraid to walk through the doors. A Peer Support Specialist assured her that asking for help wasn’t something to be ashamed of — it was one of the bravest things she could do. She came. She received treatment. And today, she remains in recovery.
Stories like hers help explain why Kentucky has seen overdose deaths decline for the fourth consecutive year. In 2025 alone, fatalities fell nearly 23 percent — a remarkable achievement that reflects years of determined work across the Commonwealth. Thousands of families have been spared unimaginable loss because of it.
Success can create a dangerous temptation to believe the crisis has passed. It hasn’t. In 2025, 1,110 Kentuckians still lost their lives to drug overdoses. That means 1,110 families forever changed. The decline in overdose deaths didn’t happen by chance. It reflects years of investment in prevention, treatment, recovery support and evidence-based opioid stewardship. The latest numbers should give us hope, but they should also reinforce a simple truth: the strategies that are working must be sustained, strengthened and expanded.
Kentucky hospitals are a vital part of that work. Every day, hospitals care for patients affected by substance use disorder, acute and chronic pain, behavioral health needs and complex medical conditions. They also have an important opportunity to prevent opioid-related harm before it begins by improving prescribing practices, supporting safer pain management and connecting patients to treatment and recovery resources when they need help most.
One of the ways hospitals are putting those principles into practice is through the Kentucky Statewide Opioid Stewardship program (KYSOS), a partnership between the Kentucky Hospital Association and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services through the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort.
KYSOS helps hospitals and health systems reduce opioid overprescribing, improve safe opioid use when opioids are warranted and demonstrate their commitment to patients and communities. The program supports hospitals where this work happens every day — inpatient units, hospital-owned outpatient primary care clinics and emergency departments. One key component is its Emergency Department Bridge Program, which helps connect patients with opioid use disorder to treatment when they need it most.
For someone experiencing opioid use disorder, an emergency department visit may be the first — and sometimes only — opportunity to begin recovery. KYSOS’ Emergency Department Bridge Program helps ensure that opportunity isn’t missed. Patients are connected with Peer Support Specialists while they’re still in the hospital, giving them immediate guidance and a direct path to treatment and community resources.
Each interaction between a peer support specialist and a patient with substance use disorder is considered a “peer support touch.” This includes recovery or peer coaching from a peer support specialist, any intervention by a peer support specialist to help link or refer to treatment, referrals to other services like transportation and food, and providing harm reduction education such as offering naloxone in hand to patients. These meaningful interactions have totaled more than 2,000 “peer support touches” so far in 2026 across the state’s 17 Bridge Programs.
KYSOS also reflects what Kentucky’s overdose data makes clear: no single program, agency or profession can solve this crisis alone. This progress depends on collaboration among hospitals, clinicians, pharmacists, peer support specialists, behavioral health providers, public health leaders, law enforcement, policymakers, community organizations, patients and families. The decline in overdose deaths is a testament to that shared commitment.
Hospital opioid stewardship isn’t about denying appropriate pain relief. It’s about treating pain safely, prescribing responsibly and recognizing opioid use disorder early so patients receive compassionate, evidence-based care instead of falling through the cracks. Prevention, treatment and recovery aren’t competing priorities — they’re part of the same continuum of care.
The recent decline in overdose deaths should encourage every Kentuckian, but it should also sharpen our resolve. Kentucky hospitals, through programs like KYSOS, are helping turn that resolve into practical, measurable action every day.
The encouraging decline in overdose deaths proves something important: this crisis is not inevitable. When hospitals, public health leaders, first responders, policymakers and community organizations work together, lives are saved. Kentucky has shown what’s possible. Now we have a responsibility to keep that progress moving forward.
Melanie Landrum is interim CEO and senior vice president of the Kentucky Hospital Association.