By ALLYSON DIX
For GlasgowNews1
The Barren County Fiscal Court has finalized its members for a new opioid abatement fund committee.
On June 16, the court approved appointing Bethany Steenbergen as a citizen member to the committee for a one-year term.
Charged with overseeing the county’s opioid abatement funds, the seven-member committee will accept and select a submitted application each year to award opioid abatement funds.
Steenbergen, a Barren County native and 2007 BCHS graduate, has dedicated the last seven years to working with individuals struggling with substance use disorders. Her background also includes a Human Services and Counseling degree from Lindsey Wilson University, formerly known as Lindsey Wilson College.
As an Alternative Sentencing Worker (ASW) in the local public defender’s office, Steenbergen assists individuals in navigating the daunting world of substance abuse treatment and recovery paths that are available to them.
“It’s my job to understand the resources available,” Steenbergen said. “I try to stay up to date on effective treatments and best practices within addiction services so that I can inform people who are struggling with addiction about what is actually offered, where it’s offered, and how they can get access to it,” Steenbergen said.
In her position, she is required to complete continued education each year with the state of Kentucky, and she spends time touring other treatment programs and collaborating with other specialists who offer addiction services to address specific needs and routes of potential success.
Individuals who find themselves in the judicial system with drug-related charges sometimes have options that allow them to attempt recovery and rehabilitation over incarceration. This path is either voluntary or involuntary, such as the case with Casey’s Law.
Steenbergen said she predominantly assists individuals who are choosing voluntarily to seek help with addiction recovery services and is often the first person incarcerated individuals request to help them.
“I feel like that’s because they are treated with a level of respect and level of autonomy that they may not get anywhere else in the court system,” Steenbergen said. “So it is very helpful for them to be able to make some of their own choices.”
Each case Steenbergen assists with allows individuals to choose a treatment and recovery path tailored to their preferences, and this autonomy can often lead to a better success rate for those struggling with substance use disorders.
“There is a network of ASWs across the state who collaborate to find the best options that meet the client’s desires on how they want to approach their own treatment,” Steenbergen said, adding that this allows clients options such as whether or not they prefer a faith-based treatment, a recovery home, an inpatient facility, etc.
“There really is a gamut of things provided for substance abuse,” she said.
Navigating substance use providers can be overwhelming and difficult to make choices that individuals think will be most beneficial, but Steenbergen believes that allowing individuals a variety of options plays a role in helping them be more successful and for far longer.
In accepting an appointment to the county’s opioid abatement fund committee, Steenbergen said she plans to keep her focus through a lens of opioid-specific addiction.
“I hope that I will be a very good voice for those actually struggling and not those that are actually providing, to be honest,” Steenbergen said. “People who struggle with addiction have been my drive for the last seven years, [and] it’s something I genuinely connect with working with this group of people.”
Individuals struggling with substance use disorder are a “very vulnerable group of people,” and Steenbergen said combating the stigma around addiction is one aspect she hopes to be able to bring to the table so the focus remains on the best options available for those grappling with drug addiction in Barren County and their desired paths of recovery.
“I would like to be able to be a voice for those people, to bring resources so that getting and maintaining recovery is possible, and that they have what they need to be successful in their recovery,” Steenbergen said.
The new opioid abatement funds committee will host its first meeting in July, which is open to the public.
What are opioid abatement funds?
Opioid abatement funds are settlement monies stemming from a 2017 federal lawsuit known as the National Prescription Opiate Litigation, which alleged that pharmaceutical manufacturers, pharmacies, and distributors contributed to an opioid crisis by misrepresenting the risks of addiction, among other claims.
A state-level board called the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission was established to manage 50% of the settlement funds, while the other 50% is distributed to qualifying counties and cities.
Barren County began receiving its opioid abatement funds in August 2023 and has yet to spend any of the funds, which total around $500,000. The funds have accrued interest at a 6% interest rate while awaiting the future decisions on where the monies will be spent.
Suggestions made by the county opioid abatement fund committee will then be forwarded to the full court for final approval before being distributed.
The seven-member opioid abatement fund committee was approved on June 2 and is comprised of the judge/executive, sheriff, jailer, county attorney, two magistrates, and a citizen representative member.
On June 16, magistrates Tim Durham and Marty Kinslow were selected by Barren County Judge/Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd to serve in the two magistrates committee seats.
KEY FACTS
• Barren County Fiscal Court has created a seven-member opioid abatement fund committee.
• On June 16, fiscal court appointed Bethany Steenbergen as the citizen member for a one-year term.
• Steenbergen is an alternative sentencing worker who helps people access addiction treatment and recovery services.
• The committee will recommend how to spend about $500,000 in local opioid abatement settlement funds.
• The county began receiving opioid abatement money in August 2023 and has not yet spent any of it.
• The committee’s first public meeting is expected to take place in July.
• Recommendations from the committee will go to the full fiscal court for final approval.
• The committee includes the judge-executive, sheriff, jailer, county attorney, two magistrates and the citizen representative.
• Magistrates Tim Durham and Marty Kinslow were selected to serve in the two magistrate seats on June 16.
• Opioid abatement funds come from a national settlement over pharmaceutical companies’ role in the opioid crisis.
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