LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Harm reduction advocates say there are unique challenges when reducing overdose deaths in the Black community.

Earlier this summer, the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet released the 2023 Drug Overdose Fatality Report, showing 1,984 Kentuckians died from a drug overdose, a 9.8% drop from 2022 when the state reported 2,200 overdose deaths. Amid this overall drop in deaths, the report also shows a 5% increase in overdose deaths among Black Kentuckians.

Shreeta Waldon is the executive director of the Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition and says the increase in deaths among Black Kentuckians highlights the added challenges and resources needed when reaching minority communities.

“If we’re not addressing all community’s needs, what we’re going to see is that disproportionate effect. Hence, you see that the Black community continues to rise in overdose fatalities because we are not able to meet them where they are at when it comes to harm reduction supplies,” Waldon told Spectrum News.

Waldon means that in more ways than one; meeting Black Kentuckians where they are physically and with a societal understanding.

“The conversations are different in Black and brown communities. We need to talk about all the other issues, and I think that’s where a lot of people miss the point. When I’m engaging Black families, I can’t just talk about, let me teach you how to reverse an overdose,” Waldon explained.

Waldon says these conversations must include the understanding of the systemic issues Black communities have historically dealt with and harm reduction is far more complicated than providing free Narcan or test strips.

Points of contact start by providing basic needs to individuals like food and water.

“So, if we’re not providing that, I can’t sit down and do an assessment with someone for an hour and a half on an empty stomach, when they are thinking about when my next meal is going to come,” Waldon said.

So that’s what the KyHRC provides at its downtown outreach location. It’s a place anyone can visit, whether seeking refuge from the outdoor elements like summer heat or winter cold, and begin a conversation about their relationship with alcohol or substances. So much of what harm reduction specialists can do hinges on building trust.

Every week Aletia Smith loads a company van with the overdose reversing drug naloxone, otherwise known as Narcan, and visits areas across the city where staff are building relationships and trust with individuals who may use drugs or spend time with others who do.

“Just because you are actively addicted to substances does not mean you should die,” Smith told Spectrum News.

Smith is the harm reduction outreach manager with the KyHRC. Over the past two years, the organization has received additional funding from the state’s opioid abatement fund, settlement money, that allows Smith, in part, to distribute more Narcan and more fentanyl testing strips to more places.

“A lot of people have heard of fentanyl. A lot of people have heard of Narcan, but do they really know what it is?”

Every day, Smith is helping more Kentuckians understand how individuals can prevent or reverse overdoses. Smith says their outreach is working and more individuals are willing to accept items like Narcan and testing strips.

“Actually, having people who don’t use substances take it because they live in neighborhoods that they do see people that are taking substances or they have loved ones who do take substances and we want to save lives, not just us,” Smith said.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Shreeta Waldon's first name. The error has been corrected. (Aug. 12, 2024)