Researcher Studies Opiod Epidemic

April Young, a Piedmont Academy graduate, is a researcher with the University of Kentucky College of Public Health and Center on Drug and Alcohol Research.

Her department has been awarded $1.16 million in cooperative agreement funds from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Appalachian Regional Commission to conduct research to address the opioid epidemic in 12 Eastern Kentucky counties.

The project is titled Kentucky Communities and Researchers Engaging to Halt the Opioid Epidemic (CARE2HOPE). Miss Young will also work with a professor and co-investigator from Emory University on the project.

“It benefits these communities to have experts from across the country working to address the opioid epidemic,” said Miss Young.