First Day Forward Program: An Overview
Created through a Rural Communities Opioid Response Program Implementation grant and developed by the Northeast Kentucky Substance Use Response Coalition. First Day Forward (FDF) is a jail reintegration program that aims to connect people in jail to resources, both during incarceration and after their release. This project administered by St. Claire HealthCare and the Northeast Kentucky Area Health Education Center, in Kentucky strives to give those suffering from substance use disorder (SUD) a true “First Day Forward” as they re-enter the community.
When candidates are accepted into the program, First Day Forward pairs peer support specialists with incarcerated individuals who self-identified as having a substance use disorder. Peers help provide cognitive life skills education and work with participants on their personalized pre-release and post-release case plans. Peers can help with a range of other steps, including expungement information, social security card applications, birth certificate requisition forms, applications for medical cards, naloxone training, local resource guides, employment opportunities, and treatment options. Ideally, peers begin meeting with individuals 60-90 days before their release.
After release, the participants’ post-release case plan begins and they are picked up by a FDF peer support specialists who then assists the participant in seeking any service that the participant may need. The peer provides a safe ride from the corrections facility to the individual’s discharge address and makes sure their basic needs are met. The peer connects the individual to community resources such as housing, employment opportunities, self-help meetings, medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) treatment if desired, primary care, and case management. The peer is also available to attend doctors’ visits and NA/AA meetings and appointments to apply for Medicaid, an identification card, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, etc.
For the first 30 days post release, the participant will have weekly face-to-face contact with the peer. Days 31 through 60 post release, the participant will have biweekly face-to-face contact with peer. Days 61-120, the participant will have monthly phone calls until they have successfully completed First Day Forward. To-date, the FDF program has served nearly 300 participants with 46.8% being assisted to treatment. The program has an overall 42.6% recidivism rate; 10% for those who have completed FDF, and 50% for those who have not completed.
Under RCORP funding and private foundation grants, FDF is focusing on seven counties in northeastern Kentucky: Boyd, Carter, Clark, Greenup, Mason, Montgomery, and Powell counties.
The Northeast Kentucky Substance Use Response Coalition is responsible for the project oversight of the First Day Forward Program. The Coalition, which makes its home on the campus of St. Claire HealthCare in Morehead, KY, is a partnership of seven organizations in northeast Kentucky that work together to address the substance use disorder crisis in the region. The current members that make up the Coalition are St. Claire HealthCare; Tri-State Primary Care; the Clark County Health Department; the Gateway District Health Department; Comprehend, Inc.; Pathways, Inc; and the Kentucky Rural Health Information Organization.
The Coalition oversees a number of different projects and initiatives – each designed to respond to some element of the substance use disorder crisis in rural Kentucky. For more information about First Day Forward or the Northeast Kentucky Substance Use Response Coalition, you can check out our website at www.nekycoalition.org