The Lexington-Fayette County Well being Division’s Board of Well being has chosen Dr. Sharon Walsh and Lexington Battalion Chief Marc Bramlage because the 2022 Dr. Rice C. Leach Public Well being Hero award winners. The award is given yearly to people who’ve demonstrated their dedication to bettering the well being of Lexington residents. The winners are introduced every April as a part of Nationwide Public Well being Week (April 4-10, 2022).
Sharon Walsh
Sharon Walsh, Ph.D., is a professor of Behavioral Science, Psychiatry, Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences within the Schools of Drugs and Pharmacy on the College of Kentucky and director of the Heart on Drug and Alcohol Analysis. Dr. Walsh is the principal investigator on the landmark $87 million HEALing Communities Examine, the most important grant ever obtained by UK, to scale back opioid overdose deaths.
By her management of just about 100 HCS interdisciplinary staff members (25 college, 70 employees), HCS has established partnerships with 27 behavioral, healthcare and eight felony justice businesses in Fayette County over the previous yr to implement an built-in set of evidence-based practices to fight the opioid epidemic. Fourteen new employees have been embedded in Fayette County businesses to increase capability for medicine therapy for opioid use dysfunction (MOUD), hyperlink and retain shoppers on MOUD, and have offered overdose training and distributed greater than 4,600 naloxone items.
“I’m honored to obtain the award created in reminiscence of Rice C. Leach, a real public well being hero dedicated to bettering the well being and well-being of Lexingtonians and all Kentuckians,” Walsh mentioned. “Kentucky was one of many first and is amongst the states hardest hit by the nation’s opioid disaster. Combating this epidemic should occur within the communities the place affected individuals reside. The HEALing Communities Examine staff, in partnership with many state and neighborhood companions, is implementing evidence-based practices and eradicating obstacles to care and restoration to flip the tide on the affect of opioid use within the Commonwealth and turn into a nationwide mannequin for lowering opioid overdose deaths.”
Marc Bramlage
Photograph by Frank Handshoe
As Battalion Chief for Emergency Medical Providers, Marc Bramlage has led his excellent staff by way of quite a lot of main and ongoing challenges, together with hearth and rescue, affected person transport and overdose response, in addition to many different issues first responders assist resolve on daily basis.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic started, Chief Bramlage has been in frequent and common contact with the Lexington-Fayette County Well being Division to make sure the groups work collectively to maximise response efforts. With out the help of Chief Bramlage and his staff, LFCHD wouldn’t have had the sources essential to conduct the big variety of COVID-19 vaccination clinics held over the previous 15 months. Due to the direct and persevering with help of Chief Marc Bramlage, Fayette County has persistently loved one of many highest vaccination charges within the state of Kentucky.
“It’s an honor to be awarded for doing a job you like,” Bramlage mentioned. “This award is a sign of the robust bond the Lexington Fireplace Division made with the well being division to assist shield the individuals of this neighborhood.”
Each winners will likely be acknowledged on the April 11 Board of Well being assembly, at 5:45 p.m. at 650 Newtown Pike. They may even be honored at 6 p.m. April 14 by Mayor Linda Gorton at a Lexington-Fayette City County Council assembly.
Beforehand often known as the Public Well being Hero Award, the Board of Well being renamed the award in 2016 in reminiscence of the late Dr. Rice C. Leach, Lexington’s former Commissioner of Well being who spent greater than 50 years as a public well being doctor. Leach died April 1, 2016.
