Education on disseminating best practices to support treatment and recovery for court-involved individuals in Kentucky
As part of the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort (KORE), the Kentucky Court of Justice launched the RESTORE initiative aimed to educate court personnel on best practices to support court-involved individuals being treated for and in recovery from opioid use disorder (OUD). RESTORE hosted two one-day, intensive state-wide summits in 2019 that covered the nature of OUD, trauma, stigma, affected and high-risk populations, medications for opioid use disorder, and effective recovery modalities across the continuum of care.
Primary goals of RESTORE included:
- educating justices, judges, court clerks and other court personnel on OUD
- reducing addiction-related stigma
- providing technical assistance to courts in implementing best practices related to supporting recovery
- promoting a family-centered approach to recovery
- facilitating access to treatment
- providing a unified body of information on OUD to courts statewide.
RESTORE operates under the guidance of Operation UNITE (Unlawful Narcotics Investigations, Treatment and Education), a non-profit organization devoted to addressing the opioid crisis in Kentucky.
The decisions made at each point of contact within the justice system can profoundly affect the recovery process of each adult, youth, and family who interacts with the courts.