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SubscribeNeighborhood Place partners offer valuable workshops and services each month like car seat safety checks, educational baby showers and a healthy living club. The month of November features two special events including the 25th anniversary celebration of First Neighborhood Place and the annual Magnificent Taste which assists needy families during the holidays. To learn more about these offerings and several others please refer to the list below.
Nov. 6, Car Seat Safety Check at Ujima Neighborhood Place, 9 – 11 a.m.
Located at 3610 Bohne Ave. Call Norton Children’s Hospital at 629-7358 to make an appointment. Learn how to install your child’s car seat or booster seat. Find out if it’s time for a change. Car seat-fitting by appointment only.
Nov. 6, Passport Members Informational at Ujima Neigborhood Place, 6 – 7 p.m.
Located at 3610 Bohne Ave. Call 1-800-578-0603 ext 7301 to register. Passport Members will have the opportunity to get to know their plans better and learn about rewards for healthy behaviors and special health programs. Members will receive a $10 retail gift card for attending and refreshments will be provided.
Mondays through Thursdays, YMCA’s “Caring and Learning with Me” program at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Located at 1503 Rangeland Rd., side of Thomas Jefferson Middle School. Call Keyonna Humphrey at 974-8457 for more information and to register. This free program provides a wonderful learning environment for children ages 3-5 years old and their caregivers focusing on play and exploration. The adult caregiver is required to attend with the child/ren and you may also bring other children ages (0-2). Sponsored by the YMCA with support from First Neighborhood Place.
Nov 8, A Healthy Journey for Two Educational Baby Shower at First Neighborhood Place, 1 – 3 p.m.
Located at 1503 Rangeland Road. For more information, contact Mendy Mason at 502-341-5400. A Healthy Journey for Two is an educational baby shower open to any expectant mothers. The class will include a range of information and resources, as well as free baby items, gift cards, prizes, and snacks. Hosted by Seven Counties and KIDSNow. Fathers are welcome but must be registered.
Nov. 9, Annual Magnificent Taste at the Edison Center, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Located at 701 W. Ormsby Ave. Enjoy a taste of fine food and an afternoon of intrigue and delight. Come and sample delicacies and themed booths prepared by staff members with Neighborhood Place and Louisville Metro Office of Resilience and Community Services. Cost is $7.00 and all monies raised will be used to sponsor needy families during the holidays to purchase clothing, coats, shoes, and/or a favorite toy(s) for children.
Nov 12, 14 15 and 19, Passport Health Care Community Engagement at multiple locations
Call 1-800-578-0603, ext. 8428 to sign up. Passport Members are invited to join with representatives from Passport Health Care for one-on-one consultations to discuss plan benefits and options. This is a great opportunity as Passport aims to raise awareness and educate the community about the Passport Health Plan mission. Passport members will receive a $10 retail gift card for attending.
- Nov 12. and 19, First Neighborhood Place, 1503 Rangeland Rd (door #16) side of Thomas Jefferson Middle School, 1- 3 p.m. Call (502) 212-6677 to leave a message telling us that you want to attend.
- Nov. 14, at Ujima Neighbohorhood Place, 3610 Bohne Ave., 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
- Nov. 15, at South Jefferson Neighborhood Place, 1000 Neighborhood Place, 1 – 3 p.m.
Nov. 13 – Dec. 4, Healthy Living Club at South Jefferson Neighborhood Place, 1 – 2 p.m.
Located at 1000 Neighborhood Place. Call 363-1483 for more information and to reserve your space. Classes are open to anyone interested in gaining more knowledge to live a better and more fulfilling life. Monthly meetings are on the second Tuesday of every month to discuss healthy living and to get the support you need to eat better, get active, and lose weight. This month will be a little FUN for the holidays. We will launch a four week series on Holiday crafts. Each week the group will focus on crafts for the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. From creative wreaths, to Fall décor come and join the fun and relax with the group. Reservations are required so supplies can be on hand and space is limited.
Nov. 16, 25th Anniversary Celebration of First Neighborhood Place, 3 – 6 p.m.
Located at 1503 Rangeland Road at (T.J. Middle School) celebration held in the W.D. Bruce Building Auditorium. Come and celebrate the beginning of Neighborhood Place with old friends and new, and share memories and thoughts for the future. Serving communities since 1993, the Neighborhood Place mission is stronger than ever in its effort “to provide blended and accessible health, education, employment and human services that support children and families in their progress toward self-sufficiency.”
Nov. 25, Free Blood Pressure Screenings at Ujima Neighborhood Place, 1 – 5 p.m.
Located at 3610 Bohne Ave. Call 313-4635 for more information. Louisville Metro Health and Wellness health educators will provide free blood pressure screenings and health information.
Neighborhood residents in Metro Council Districts 6 and 8 have submitted more than 250 ideas to improve health and wellbeing in their neighborhoods through the Our Money, Our Voice project. Now volunteers are needed to help evaluate those ideas and prepare them for voting.
Launched in August, Our Money, Our Voice is an initiative of the Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness’s Center for Health Equity, and Metro Council President David James (District 6) and Councilman Brandon Coan (District 8). People living in those council districts will decide how $150,000 ($75,000 in each district) will be spent.
“Ideas can be submitted until Nov. 2,” said Council President James. “In our next phase, we need volunteers to serve as community scientists and research the ideas we’ve collected for cost, feasibility, and equity. This work will then lead to those projects all residents can vote on to be funded.”
People interested in volunteering for this phase of the project are asked to attend the Our Money Our Voice Civic Innovation Institute on November 8 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness headquarters at 400 E. Gray St.
“This is an important step,” said Councilman Coan. “At the Civic Innovation Institute, volunteers will also have an opportunity to build the kind of skills that will help them be able to directly influence how Metro government prioritizes the projects it funds in this pilot and beyond.”
Our Money, Our Voice is the name of Louisville’s participatory budgeting initiative – a way for members of a community to work together to better meet their needs while having a direct say in government decisions. In the process, people often find new ways of interacting with government and with each other to create solutions for all.
Funding for the initiative is coming from $100,000 in capital infrastructure funds ($50,000 from each district) and $50,000 from the Department of Public Health and Wellness.
District 6 neighborhoods participating in Our Money, Our Voice include Algonquin, California, Limerick, Old Louisville, Park Hill, Russell (the section north of Broadway Avenue, south of Plymouth Street, west of 22nd Street, and east of 26th Street), Taylor-Berry, University, and Victory Park.
Participating District 8 neighborhoods include Belknap, Bonnycastle, Cherokee Seneca – Alta Vista, Cherokee Triangle, Deer Park, Gardiner Lane – Upper Highlands, Hawthorne, Hayfield Dundee.
To volunteer, submit ideas or learn more about Our Money, Our Voice visit www.OurMoneyOurVoice.org.
The Department for Public Health (DPH), within the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, is reminding Kentuckians to get vaccinated against the flu.
“Getting the flu can be debilitating and sometimes life-threatening,” said Jeffrey Howard, M.D., commissioner of DPH. “Vaccination is the best tool we have to prevent the flu and it is also extremely important to take simple preventive steps to avoid the flu and other illnesses that tend to circulate at this time of year – wash your hands frequently, cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze and stay home when you’re sick.”
DPH officials report weekly influenza activity to the CDC as part of statewide flu surveillance efforts. The weekly report is located online at https://healthalerts.ky.gov/Pages/FluActivity.aspx will be updated by noon each Friday. Kentucky currently is reporting 28 laboratory-confirmed cases of flu and one influenza-related death. The state flu activity level is currently classified as “sporadic”. The report consists of laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza that are defined by molecular virus testing and positive virus culture test results. Rapid positive influenza tests are not included in this report, but are used as an indicator of flu-like illness circulating across the state.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends flu vaccine for all individuals six months of age and older. People who are strongly encouraged to receive the flu vaccine because they may be at higher risk for complications or negative consequences include:
- Children age six months through 59 months;
- Women who are or will be pregnant during the influenza season;
- Persons 50 years of age or older;
- Persons with extreme obesity (Body Mass Index of 40 or greater);
- Persons aged six months and older with chronic health problems;
- Residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities;
- Household contacts (including children) and caregivers of children aged ≤59 months
- Household contacts and caregivers or people who live with a person at high-risk for
complications from the flu; and - Health care workers, including physicians, nurses, and other workers in inpatient and outpatient-care settings, medical emergency-response workers (e.g., paramedics and emergency medical technicians), employees of nursing home and long-term care facilities who have contact with patients or residents, and students in these professions who will have contact with patients.
Adequate supplies of flu vaccine are expected to be available for this year’s flu season. Vaccination can be given any time during the flu season, but providers are encouraged to administer the vaccine as soon as possible.
During the 2016-17 and 2017-18 influenza seasons, ACIP recommended that Flu Mist not be used because of concerns about low effectiveness against influenza A (H1N1). However, ACIP recommends that FluMist once again be an option for vaccination during the 2018-2019 influenza season for persons for whom it is age-appropriate and who have no medical contraindications. The change in recommendation is a result of the influenza A (H1N1) strain being changed in the current FluMist formulation.
Due to the timing of the decision by the ACIP regarding use of FluMist, the Kentucky Vaccines for Children Program (VFC) will not be offering FluMist for VFC or KCHIP patients during the 2018-2019 influenza season. However, some private providers will offer FluMist this season for their patients.
The flu vaccine is especially important in light of the severe season experienced last year across the U.S. The CDC reports that more than 900,000 flu-related hospitalizations occurred and more than 80,000 people died as a result of flu. In Kentucky there were 333 flu-related deaths, 5 of which were pediatric. Of the pediatric flu deaths reported in last year’s season, more than one-third of these occurred among healthy children between the ages of 6 months and 4 years.
It is especially important for pregnant women to be vaccinated before or during pregnancy. Antibodies cross the placenta and provide immunity to infants up to 6 months of age, when the infant is eligible to receive their dose of flu vaccine.
DPH relies on sites such as doctors’ offices, hospitals and health departments to help track the level of influenza activity in the state and to identify which strains of the flu are circulating in Kentucky. These voluntary sites collect data and report influenza-like illness (ILI) cases according to age groups each week. This sampling represents only a small percentage of influenza cases for the state, but contributes to the ongoing assessment of flu activity in the Commonwealth and helps determine the weekly level of flu activity.
Infection with the flu virus can cause fever, headache, cough, sore throat, runny nose, sneezing and body aches. Flu can be very contagious. For more information on influenza or the availability of flu vaccine, Kentuckians should contact their primary care medical provider or local health department. Influenza information is also available online at https://www.cdc.gov/flu/index.htm.
Attorney General Andy Beshear today filed suit against Pennsylvania-based pharmaceutical manufacturer Teva for allegedly promoting its fentanyl-based cancer drugs for “off-label” use in Kentucky, which directly contributed to the state’s addiction outbreak.
The lawsuit, filed in Fayette Circuit Court, claims Teva persuaded physicians to prescribe its drugs, Actiq and Fentora, to treat chronic pain despite the drugs being approved solely for breakthrough pain in cancer patients.
The lawsuit alleges Teva’s salesforce was instructed to target doctors who were not oncologists, including general practitioners. In one instance, a sales representative alleges that 99 percent of the doctors in her territory were pain specialists not oncologists who wrote prescriptions for off-label use.
Beshear said this allowed the company to grow its market in Kentucky while contributing to the state’s drug epidemic. He said Teva had the largest amount of opioids, per gram, sold in Kentucky over a nearly 10-year period.
“The actions by Teva to deceptively push highly-powerful fentanyl-based opioids into a state like Kentucky that’s ravaged by addiction is probably one of the most egregious acts we have seen from a pharmaceutical company that’s heartlessly focused on profits over our people,” Beshear said. “While Teva is predicting $19 billion in revenues this year, we are seeking to hold them accountable under Kentucky law by making them pay for the damages caused to our state and Kentucky families.”
Fentanyl is 50-100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than many forms of heroin.
Beshear said in Kentucky and the U.S., overdose deaths related to fentanyl now surpass deaths related to heroin.
According to a July 25, 2018 report released by the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, fatal overdoses in Kentucky totaled 1,565 in 2017, which was an 11.5 percent increase over the previous year. Fentanyl was a factor in approximately 763 deaths and 52 percent of the toxicology cases, which is an increase of about 47 percent compared to 2016.
Beshear’s lawsuit claims Teva took steps to conceal its deceptive marketing and unlawful conduct by funding and working through unbranded marketing, third-party advocates and professional associations to promote opioid use.
According to the lawsuit, Teva sales representatives regularly omitted any discussion of addiction caused by long-term opioid use from their sales conversations with Kentucky prescribers, and despite having knowledge of suspicious prescribing, Teva failed to implement policies and procedures that would enable its sales representatives to report this conduct.
One of Teva’s drugs, Actiq, delivers fentanyl into the bloodstream via a lollipop lozenge. It’s other, Fentora, is an oral tablet that also dissolves in a patient’s mouth.
According to the lawsuit, the FDA expressly prohibited Teva from marketing Actiq for anything but breakthrough cancer pain, which is a sudden flare-up of pain. The FDA refused to approve Fentora for the treatment of chronic pain because of the potential harm, including the high risk of “serious and life-threatening adverse events” and abuse, which the agency said are greatest in non-cancer patients.
In 2008, the Department of Justice accused Cephalon, a Teva subsidiary, of promoting Actiq for uses the FDA had not approved. Cephalon settled the charges for $425 million. The federal government charged that Cephalon promoted Actiq to non-cancer patients for conditions such as “migraines, sickle-cell pain crises, injuries, and in anticipation of changing wound dressings or radiation therapy.”
“Teva has not changed its ways or corrected its past misconduct but instead is continuing to fuel our opioid crisis,” Beshear said.
Beshear said the opioid crisis is having a devastating effect on Kentucky’s workforce. Recent research has demonstrated that the Commonwealth’s high rate of opioid usage has reduced the workforce, created high turnover, increased employers’ costs to train new employees and caused an increase in employee thefts.
Today’s lawsuit is the eighth opioid related lawsuit Beshear has filed.
Beshear has sued three national opioid distributors, Pennsylvania-based AmerisourceBergen, Ohio-based Cardinal Health and San Francisco-based McKesson Corporation, which together are responsible for supplying 85 percent of opioids in Kentucky; distributor and retail pharmacy Walgreens; and pharmaceutical manufacturers Johnson and Johnson, Mallinckrodt, and Endo Pharmaceuticals.
A Franklin Circuit Judge ruled that he would not dismiss Beshear’s 2017 lawsuit against Endo. Beshear recently announced that his office has won fights to keep four of his current opioid lawsuits in Kentucky courts, and that Kentuckians can track the progress of each case by visiting ag.ky.gov.
Beshear is once again calling on lawmakers to create a permanent trust fund to battle addiction in Kentucky. He is working with Rep. Dennis Keene, of Wilder, on legislation that requires funds recovered by the Commonwealth from lawsuits, fines or settlements related to the drug epidemic to only be spent addressing the needs of Kentucky’s drug prevention educators, law enforcement and treatment providers.
Beshear has provided $8 million from a pharmaceutical settlement to 15 substance abuse treatment centers.
And he has launched the state’s first initiative to allow Kentuckians to safely dispose of opioid medications at home. The program has the potential to dispose of more than 2.2 million unused opioids and help to reduce the nearly 80 percent of heroin users who begin their addiction with prescription drugs.
Attorney General Andy Beshear announced that a Grayson Rite Aid Pharmacy manager has been indicted for allegedly dispensing a controlled substance without a proper doctor’s prescription and for falsifying pharmacy medical records.
Tommy Dearfield Jr., 30, of Ashland, received a 37-count indictment by a Carter County grand jury Oct. 5 for alleged illegal conduct in 2017 as pharmacy manager.
Beshear’s detectives and members of the Grayson Police Department arrested Dearfield Oct. 12. He was lodged in the Carter County Detention Center.
The investigation was conducted by Beshear’s Department of Criminal Investigations with assistance by the Kentucky Board of Pharmacy and Rite Aid Loss Prevention.
Beshear said Dearfield voluntarily surrendered his pharmacy license during the course of the investigation.
Dearfield is scheduled to appear in Carter Circuit Court at 9 a.m. on Nov. 5.
The Kentucky Department for Public Health has confirmed West Nile virus in five Louisville residents. Four of the West Nile cases were neuroinvasive, a serious form of the disease in which the virus attacks the brain or the tissues lining the brain and spinal cord leading to encephalitis or meningitis. There have been no deaths from West Nile this year.
“We urge people to protect themselves against West Nile,” said Dr Sarah Moyer, director of the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness. You should wear insect repellant and dress in long sleeves and pants if going outside during dusk and dawn.”
“The massive amounts of rain we have seen over the last several days are causing mosquito populations to multiply and we know that West Nile infected mosquitoes are present throughout the community,” said Dr. Moyer.
In most instances, people infected with West Nile virus either show no symptoms or relatively mild symptoms. However, less than one percent of infected people develop a serious neurologic illness such as encephalitis or meningitis. Serious illness can occur in people of any age. However, people over 60 years of age are at the greatest risk for severe disease. People with certain medical conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, and people who have received organ transplants, are also at greater risk for serious illness.
The Department of Public Health and Wellness advises people to take the following precautions:
Avoid Mosquito Bites
Use insect repellents when you go outdoors. Repellents containing DEET, picaridin, IR3535, and some oil of lemon eucalyptus and para-menthane-diol products provide longer-lasting protection. To optimize safety and effectiveness, repellents should be used according to the label instructions. More information about insect repellents can be found here at http://www.cdc.gov/westnile/faq/repellent.html.
When weather permits, wear long sleeves, long pants and socks when outdoors. Mosquitoes may bite through thin clothing, so spraying clothes with repellent containing permethrin or another EPA-registered repellent will give extra protection. Don’t apply repellents containing permethrin directly to skin. Do not spray repellent on the skin under your clothing.
Take extra care during peak mosquito biting hours. Take extra care to use repellent and protective clothing from dusk to dawn or consider avoiding outdoor activities during these times.
Mosquito-Proof Your Home
Install or repair screens on windows and doors to keep mosquitoes outside. Use your air conditioning, if you have it.
Help reduce the number of mosquitoes around your home by emptying standing water from flowerpots, gutters, buckets, pool covers, pet water dishes, discarded tires and birdbaths on a regular basis.
The Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness has operated a mosquito control program for more than 50 years. The department does surveillance of mosquito populations with traps strategically located throughout the community and tests mosquitos for such diseases as West Nile, Zika and St. Louis Encephalitis.
In the spring the department pre-treats potential mosquito breeding sites with larvicide to prevent hatch offs. In the summer it treats catch basins and performs mosquito fogging in response to West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne diseases.
In 2017 there was one non-fatal human West Nile case in Louisville. In 2016 there were two human cases and one death. In 2015, there were three human cases with no deaths.
To check if your area has been fogged or will be fogged call the mosquito hotline, 574-6641, or visit https://louisvilleky.gov/government/health-wellness/mosquito-fogging. To make a request regarding mosquitoes in your neighborhood call Metro Call at 311 or 574-5000.
Louisville’s homeless population will have an opportunity to access services, information and assistance in a one-stop environment at the 2018 Project Homeless Connect/VA Stand Down, on Wed., Oct. 3. Resources available at the event will include food, clothing, medical evaluations, help with employment, education and benefit services, State ID’s, and many other forms of assistance.
The event takes place from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. (entry doors will close at 1 p.m.) at The Salvation Army (Old Male High School) campus located at 911 S. Brook St. in Louisville. Several TARC buses will provide access throughout the day from emergency shelters to the event site at no cost courtesy of TARC. The event is coordinated by the Robley Rex Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), Louisville Metro Office of Resilience and Community Services, Coalition for the Homeless and other community partners including The Salvation Army.
The Project Homeless Connect/VA Stand Down (PHC/Stand Down) is an annual one-day community outreach project where representatives from community service organizations come together to address the collective needs of the homeless during a single visit. This event is made possible by the work of hundreds of volunteers and resources from the Robley Rex VAMC, Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs, Louisville Metro Government, Coalition for the Homeless, and Louisville Metro Council.
The latest numbers from the 2017 Homeless Census indicate 6217 individuals were homeless at some point in Louisville last year — either on the streets, in homeless shelters or accessing services through Louisville’s homeless service providers. A variety of factors can lead to homelessness and often these individuals may be victims of domestic violence, disabled, veterans or senior citizens.
At last year’s event approximately 400 persons participated receiving a variety of individual services including State of KY ID cards, flu shots and other medical exams and services, housing linkages, mainstream benefit access (SSI/SSDI), clothing, food and general case management services. The “Stand Down” event, named for the military concept of renewal, personal care, etc., is replicated from a national service delivery model that has proven to be crucial in eliminating barriers to housing, employment, education and the myriad of other factors that contribute to long-term homelessness.
“This is a vital event for our community because it allows our service providers to connect much-needed resources to our homeless residents”, stated Gena Redmon Harris, director of the city’s Office of Resilience and Community Services. “It also allows us a great opportunity to measure the needs of our homeless population so that we can come together to be more responsive”.
Offered again this year will be a foot-washing service provided by community volunteers and the Coalition for the Homeless. Many individuals experiencing homelessness have issues with their feet due to diabetes, frostbite and other exposure issues. Every participant at Project Homeless Connect/Stand Down will be invited to soak their feet and have them examined by medical volunteers.
For more information about the Homeless Connect event contact:
- Jamie Watts – Louisville VAMC Homeless Supervisory Coordinator at 502-287-4176
- Ethan Lambert – Louisville Metro Resilience and Community Services at 502-574-5375
- Natalie Harris – Coalition for the Homeless at 502-636-9550
