# Opioid Abatement Commission - August 8, 2025 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Commission · August 8, 2025 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/6508 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/6508?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2025-08-08 - **Body**: Commission - **Last revised**: February 14, 2026 - **Length**: 4,753 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1, with speaker labels folded in from Granicus closed-captioning. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Commission Meeting was held on August 8, 2025, and was presided over by Dr. Stephanie Raglan. The meeting covered two agenda items, both informational in nature: an Executive Board Report and a presentation by Champion Therapy Center. Over the course of the meeting, the Commission heard 1 public comment and conducted 3 votes. The session included 1 formal presentation, delivered by Champion Therapy Center, alongside the Executive Board Report provided for the Commission's awareness. ## Attendance **Present (8):** - Dr. Stephanie Raglan - Tara Stanfield - Kimberly Baird - John Moses - Margaret Pesciano - Dale Sanders - Mark Woods - Angela Evans **Absent (3):** - Carmen - Sierra Bowman - Connie Neal **Late:** None Eight members were present at the August 8, 2025 Commission meeting, constituting the attending body for the session. Three members — Carmen, Sierra Bowman, and Connie Neal — were absent. No members arrived late. ## Votes and Decisions Three voice votes were taken during the August 8, 2025 Commission meeting. No roll call votes were recorded, so individual member tallies are not available for any of the motions. - **Approve the Agenda:** Dale Sanders moved to approve the meeting agenda, seconded by Connie Neal. The motion passed by voice vote. [timestamp: 0:04:42] - **Approve the July 11th Meeting Minutes:** Angela Evans moved to approve the minutes from the July 11th meeting, seconded by Mark Woods. The motion passed by voice vote. [timestamp: 0:06:04] - **Adjourn the Meeting:** A motion to adjourn was seconded by Pesciano and passed by voice vote. [timestamp: 0:33:08] ## Public Comment One member of the public provided comment during the August 8, 2025 Commission meeting. [timestamp: 24:08] - **Shashi** addressed the Commission on two related topics: the **Recovery Glue and Grin Grant** and an online telehealth program. She described a dental restoration program designed to serve people in long-term recovery, as well as an online Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) and Outpatient Program (OP) delivered via telehealth. Shashi emphasized the importance of building a supportive structure for individuals in recovery as a central theme of her remarks. No additional public comments were recorded for this meeting. ## Executive Board Report [timestamp: 06:37] Dr. Stephanie Raglan delivered the Executive Board Report, providing the Commission with an update on recent executive board activity. Dr. Raglan reported that the executive board meeting lacked a quorum, which affected the board's ability to conduct formal business. She also provided updates related to recommendations concerning commission candidates and funding matters. The report was informational in nature, and no formal action or vote was taken by the Commission as a result of the presentation. ## Presentation by Champion Therapy Center [timestamp: 11:20] Daisy, a representative from Champion Therapy Center, addressed the Commission to provide an overview of the organization's services and approach to care. Daisy's presentation focused on Champion Therapy Center's mental health and addiction services, highlighting the organization's philosophy of treating not just the individual but the whole family unit. A key theme of the presentation was the importance of community involvement in supporting mental health and recovery outcomes. The presentation was informational in nature, and no votes or formal actions were taken as a result. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approve the agenda for the meeting - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approve the minutes from the July 11th meeting - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Adjourn the meeting --- ## Full transcript mr so do so so so so so so so so thank you everybody for coming out this morning carmen are you ready for the roll call good morning chair dr stephanie raglan vice chair tara stanfield president kimberly baird here sierra bowman mr great house i can never think of commander great house john moses present connie neal margaret pesciano here mr dale sanders here dr wood mark woods uh present ms angela evans here we have a quorum thank you thank you carmen next we'll look to adopt the agenda for today if you want to take a look at it and then i will receive a motion so dale sanders i would move that we approve the agenda connie neal second we have a motion and a second all in favor all right the opposed opposed all right next up if you'll take a second to look at the minutes from the july 11th meeting we'll take a minute to look those over and then i will entertain a motion that's thank you angela evans i move for approval of the minutes mark woods up second that motion we have a motion and a second uh all in favor of approval of the of the minutes any opposed all right hi sierra um all right if you want to look over in your packet for the executive board report out um we did not have a quorum at the executive board meeting i want to apologize for my absence i should be back and able to attend those consistently after this month um we have had a thursday conflict with my work um but there are a couple updates in here to look at biggest two i think are news that we are still waiting on any feedback regarding our recommendations for both potential commission candidates for both potential commission candidates that list was submitted to the mayor and we haven't heard back about that or our recommendations for funding that we put together last time so do we have any idea carmen when we think we might hear something the list wasn't submitted it was just that it's open for two new people to join so that's been being explored anyone that's interested in being a part of the commission there are two spots open and they would go through the mayor's office as far as feedback from the recommendations i don't know when we it would be you know bad for me to say oh we should know in a week because i really don't know my apologies but um that has been made known and hopefully we'll get an update soon so and then the other big news is just want to let everybody know that overdose awareness day is august 31st um the substance use disorder intervention program is going to um has some information about that on their website you have an opportunity if you want to be a vendor or have a booth for your organization you can go on the website is that where you sign up carmen and that's free those tables are free where is it going to be held so this event is actually it's a partnership between our division our program substance use disorder intervention program and social services for the city deviate and voices of hope and that will be held august 31st it will start at deviate in the east end and then we'll be coming down to this central bank pavilion so we'll have vendors from the one the initial starting place all the way down just place periodically i mean periodically throughout and we will also have free lunch for those that come out and attend and actually participate and go to the vendors we'll have like a little map or whatever that they'll have to get stamps and then we'll also be having one of the biggest boots on the ground because as we know it takes all boots on the ground to get things moving forward so we'll have lots of fun education it's a family friendly event it's free so i want to encourage everybody to come out and if you'd like your organization to participate on our website if you just google lfucg substance use program there's a job form there's a link on there and you can sign up to be a vendor and it's free thank you carmen looks looks like that's the biggest news out of the executive committee what do you got john moses i want to add to new business this year bowman was also in attendance at the state opioid abatement commission forum um that's for the last month's meeting from the executive committee oh um reported out there oh i see do y'all have that so where are you in new business on the executive committee meeting minutes um the first bullet is where you myself and i see it yeah we can add ciara's name on there thank you all right um i think we're going to be moving through all of our business pretty quick here but we are excited to have a presenter today um mrs brown with the champion therapy center if you'll come up to the podium here we'll give you one tip is a these things fall off your clothes really bad so don't let that stress you out and b if you'll make sure that you're always speaking into the mic that's the only way that um the camera and the sound can pick you up for uh online okay first i'm going to start my timer so y'all give me one more minute make sure i don't go over my time uh i'll state my welcome so give me one second start a 15-minute timer siri siri start a 15-minute timer she don't like me this morning start a 15-minute timer portia start thank you there we go that's how i bring help good morning everyone how are you all today it is friday and i'm so glad about it um i want to say thank you for this opportunity to present um and i want to honor everyone that is here um and allowing me to talk about something that is very passionate to me and something that me and my wonderful staff get to do every day my name is daisy i am from the champion therapy center um i want to tell you a little bit about the champion therapy center as we go through the slides i call my company a pandemic company we started in 2019 right as the pandemic was happening and if you know anything about mental health everybody was locked in the house with people they weren't sure they liked and so at that point in time my clientele doubled and i have to say from 2019 to now we have um had over 14 000 appointments um and we have had at least 1300 people calling for services and so mental health is a really big thing but not only mental health even addiction is a big thing so i i appreciate the fact that you all have given me the time and the space to be able to talk about something that is very passionate to me and my wonderful staff we have i have a wonderful staff they are amazing um we understand that especially at the champion therapy center that when we treat an individual we're not really just treating the individual we're treating their whole house we're treating grandma we're treating cousins we're treating uncles it may be just one person sitting in front of me but actually when we start we're actually treating a whole family a whole household a whole generation when i first started doing this i started an inpatient treatment center in stoner creek in paris and i remember a young lady sitting in front of me and she was like okay my treatment here is getting ready to end but i want to go to long-term treatment and so my colleagues was like oh we don't we usually can't find any place that will take long-term treatments well i am one that believes in miracles so i started calling around that's how i started asking hey do you believe in miracles and they were like when i finally found someone that said yes i said good because i need one and so she was like okay what do you need i said i have a young lady who's getting ready to leave but she doesn't want to go home she wants to go into long-term treatment do you all have a bed and she said send me the paperwork and so i sent the paperwork and i was like okay and she said we have a bed she said the only problem is we don't have any transportation to get her from there to to the treatment center and so i asked a young lady do you have any support will anybody help you and she said no i've burned so many bridges nobody will help me i said well what about your mom she said she's already taking care of my son she's not going to help i said can i at least call her and so i called her i talked to mom and i was just like hey you know this is what's going on this is what's happening i said i found her bed i said but we have a problem we don't have any transportation and young lady was sitting in front of me quiet not saying anything we don't have any transportation to get her there and the mom broke down in tears and she said excuse me i'll do whatever it takes and the young lady sat there i brought my tissue because i knew i was gonna cry which i know it's been many years but it still affects me that way and mom said i'll do whatever it takes she said because i've been praying that she would get help and so that's the day that i realized that when i do this i'm not just treating the young lady sitting in front of me but i'm treating grandma i'm treating the little boy i'm answering a little boy's prayer that wants his mom back i'm answering grandma's prayer that wants her child her son back and so this has been something that has touched my heart daily because i noticed that it's not just a person sitting in front of me i'm treating a whole family i'm treating a generation and so me and my staff take that very seriously okay so that's how we start i'm already crying there should be the last teardropper i think we're gonna see so let me tell you about our services at the champion therapy center we offer individual counseling group family counseling trauma-informed evidence evidence-based approaches and we offer it seven days a week so we offer it sunday saturday monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday and we take all insurances commercial medicaid medicare we try to make sure that we can service everyone that needs it um we we love what we do uh my my staff is making sure that that's why we do it seven days a week we have therapists that don't mind coming in on the weekends and saying you know because everybody can't make it you know monday through friday some people need the weekend service so i'm glad and honored to be able to say that we we offer those services seven days a week we also offer targeted case management which we personalize a plan for whoever is sitting in front of us because we know treating people is not one size fits all and so we sit and our targeted case manager goes over all the things that the person could possibly need whether it is recovery plans whether they want inpatient or outpatient if they need health insurance if they need housing if they need support like being connected to things in the community so we also offer targeted case management as well um when someone may need a short-term or long-term treatment um we also let me take it back for a second yeah there we go uh we offer assistance getting them into short-term treatment or long-term treatment but we also offer the ability to be there when they get out you know so when they get out it's not like we're throwing them to the wolves they're all done now and they'll figure out how to live outside of the things that you've been living with for many years it's easy to kind of live in a sheltered place and do right but it's a little bit harder when you have to go back into society and figure out the boundaries and figure out who is really your friend and who's not your friend and whether you can be around them or whether you shouldn't be around them and we try to help them figure out that process um some people don't want rehab and so they may want um let me go back they wait a minute i'm going the wrong way sorry the clicker me and the clicker not having fun other way okay here we go sorry one more okay some people may not want to go into rehab and they may want um matt which is medicated assistance treatment and so we also try to help them find that if they want suboxone or methadone or something like that we try to make sure that we connect them with those resources in the community as well like i said it's not a one-size-fits-all so we have to make sure that we um cater to what they need we don't feel like we're the expert on them they're the expert on them and so we try to make sure what have you tried what haven't you tried and we try to walk beside them until they get to where they want to be we don't try to dictate okay you have to do this you have to do that it's like no what do you want to do and sometimes they succeed really well and sometimes they don't but we try to offer a a place for space and grace you know um we went through the rehab part um the other thing that we offer we have a non-profit that is connected to us and so with that we try to offer food basic hygiene needs if they have clothing needs say they get out of rehab and they want to start a job but they don't have the uniform or the money to get a uniform or they don't have transportation so we offer bus passes we offer program gift cards and we also try to make sure that they are connected to any resources in the community our thing is if it doesn't exist we try to create it i'm not really good at taking no for an answer so usually if i call a place and they say no i'm like if you can't do that what can you do because they may not be able to do what i'm asking for but they have something even if it's just a name and so with our services we push for it we fight for our clients we advocate for them um to make sure that they get what they need and they never feel alone so one of the things i realized that it is important to have a no judgment zone for people if we were to tell the truth addiction could be some of our lives if it wasn't our life before and if life keeps life in the way it does it still could be some of our lives and so we try to make sure that we don't um we don't judge people because it could be us or our lives have been touched by somebody who has had this going on so we create a space uh where there is no judgment we hear the traumas we hear the different things that have happened to them and we empathize and we sympathize because honestly we all know somebody that has struggled with some of this some of us may be still dealing with that same person now and um so we want to be a place where people can come in and they can feel like they're heard and supported um and as i think about it and here's here's my honest opinion when i hear people's story about how they got into addiction i realized between society family friends somebody hurt them somebody harmed them it was somebody in the community that did it well guess what it's going to take also the community to heal what has been broken and this is our way of helping to heal our land is by making sure that we connect people with the things that they need the opportunities that they need we don't give up we we keep fighting until we can't fight anymore and so i appreciate i'm real quick i appreciate you all giving me the space and the grace but thank you so much for listening and we would love the opportunity to continue to heal the land thank you any questions comments concerns miss daisy yes my name's dale right before you got my attention right away first comments you made because uh margaret and i just before you came we're talking about both of our sons have birthdays in august um margaret's son passed in 2021 in 2013 and we've needed support so it's not just the addicts it's the families who so thank you for uh for your heart on doing that i appreciate that very much thank you yes i don't have a question just a comment i feel your passion i mean it's just it's everywhere in the room and so i just wanted to thank you for coming and and talking to us and doing what you do because i i don't know you but i imagine you're awesome thank you thank you thank you so much you're welcome great presentation thank you y'all have a great weekend here's your brochure carmen do we have anybody for open comment today crystal's gonna check and i have one um i need to make a correction it's fifth third tandy park pavilion right is that right kimberly yes i always say central bank i don't know so my apologies for the overdose awareness it'll go from deviate east end to the fifth third tandy park pavilion which is here on main street where they have thursday night life yep there are no open comments all right no open comment this is a this is a record time meeting um i think we've made our way through it somebody that didn't realize oh here you want to sign i thought i did you just have the regular yeah i had to find out what open comment meant um so we have one open comment we have miss shashi hi everyone um thank you for letting me speak this is actually just a scrimmage this is not the grand show you're gonna get on the next one we have a project that we're working on oh first of all my uh my our company is called grin grant inc wonderful presentation um we have a program called recovery glue that is online uh iop and op all online telehealth for when they go home exactly right recreating that structure is is like you can either step down or you can dive off a building do you know so it's just and i have 11 years in recovery and i have done so many autopsies on my failure you know oh i failed but i can look back now on the success because that's the only way to have any perspective and yes having the um the structure around you is key we're herd animals and we have to be inspired that's one of our programs the program we started with is called grin grant.org and it's a dental restoration program for people in long-term recovery all of our programs we like to say are for the winners in recovery meaning the people in long-term recovery that are living a life in recovery so like she's talking about about um not creating not not uh not having to recreate that structure it's also addressing the what's next there's lots of resources for people starting out in recovery when you're doing well not so much okay not so much so what we were doing is dental restorations and it was not a free teeth program it's a recovery program for for a dental restoration it's peer-led this is one of our graduates here he's also a staff member all of our staff members are graduates of our program his job when he first got in this program said your job is not about you anymore this is about helping the newcomer just like in recovery because they're terrified of the dentist they're terrified of the outcome well what the the brochure i gave you is what now we've become but they need to be scared of and that is bone loss we've got people in their 20s getting dentures now because medicaid bless their hearts like us um are putting people they're solving the problem by pulling every tooth out and giving them dentures well as you can see from that picture and you've seen it before when somebody gets pointy looking they're losing that ridge so soon nothing will fit nothing because it works on like a saddle principle that's how a prosthetic fits the reason why i'm waiting until next time to talk to you is we just keep getting blessings every week here's the vision the the ratio is is only three percent of dentists in kentucky are qualified to put in an implant you got people doing it but they're not qualified and i can tell you we tried a trial run with four people and all four of those implants failed and we found out through the cat scan later it's because they picked the wrong implant that put it in the wrong depth here's how we found out because we made a friendship with a program called smiles for recovery down in tennessee that are masters at this but they couldn't get their act together so i said here's what we got to do you need to put in a teaching clinic in kentucky we've got the head of implantology of uk on board now and that happened since last week i want to cry talking about this because i've been through so many meetings listening to people bragging about how good the implant program is at our schools and there isn't one well not according to this guy do you know so they're only doing basic things not sophisticated procedures so here's how everybody wins our people in recovery who are doing well are truly restored that's what abatement means so we can't do a band-aid on a gunshot wound we must restore them this is a drug that physically disfigures them they're the modern day leper and you all know what you think when you see it they know you think that because they think it too so for us to say oh um and it's not because we're snobby it's deep in our brain stem that's how we recognize danger that people won't wipe out our tribe because we have the wrong antibodies it's that deep in the brain stem we must when i learned about that why i was seeing our alumni calling back going doesn't fit anymore i don't know you know that's why so now that i know i can't not know so i'm going to bring you the specifics on it we already have delta dental on board um they can't pull the full load we're gonna we we got an opioid abatement grant last year very generous and so i heard like oh they do it on the local level too i said oh well maybe y'all should know we have a partnership with with chrysalis house for another program we do to do pre-free peer supports to get rid of the grifters that like to charge new people in recovery for things but get rid of that and uh these are all run by grand grand alumni we want to make recovery attractive because one reason why i did not stay in recovery is it was not attractive to me i didn't have examples i'd go to rooms and i'd in that you know how many times can you listen i'm just so grateful and you don't have to make a gratitude list and you say okay here are the things i should be grateful for because that's what it really is that's really the list it's different now so let's do so when we're talking about creating a clinic we're going to be training the the the not only the uh dental students of all the universities not just uk all over everywhere but you're going to be charging practicing dentists we are oh here's the big one the american academy of implantology is on board too that is the gold standard that's why people fly to uh chicago we're gonna have it in kentucky a former president is on board too i've got like the dream team because of this and here's what's the key thing that really made it all glue together is we offer case management because like i was describing to you in the beginning the heart of our program you got to have people follow directions well we we tried billing medicaid to see if we can make it sustainable that didn't work because i can't boss them around like i need to because when i say no sugar high protein that's not a suggestion that means do it you know so there's uh and there's a certain thing about your level of sobriety that you've learned to take instructions so well that's my teaser do you like my movie teaser for the next time i see you but each it seems like every day something else keeps bringing this to fruition so this will be something that not just not only serves the people that have been harmed it will create our workforce that can also help them introduce them to recovery ready dentistry which is not talked about they're afraid and it'll be self-sustaining financially self-sustaining thank you thank you thank you all right any any other open comment tara i do have a since the list of um of potential new members for this commission is not yet been submitted or voted on by the mayor would i have an opportunity to add someone and do i need to do that via motion here i think they they can go on the website is that the mayor the mayor yes but the application go on the website for the boards and commissions if it's if there's not an application on there i will touch base again with the mayor's office to make sure that the application and notice is on there because they're okay i have reached out i don't know if they've put it on there but it's an application process once the application is complete then the mayor has the decision on you know appointing someone so the current list that we have submitted they've all submitted applications there wasn't a list that we submitted i don't know if you heard me when i said there was there were suggestions that were made so those individuals can be reached out to and i guess directed to fill out an application i'll do that yes ma'am thank you you're welcome anybody else anything all right i will entertain a motion to adjourn second peace kano we have a motion and a second all in favor any opposed all right we are adjourned thanks everybody for coming out do