Lebanon County commissioners authorize heroin task force

The Lebanon County commissioners on Thursday put their stamp of approval on a heroin task force organized last month by local government and health officials.

Aimed at stemming a surge in heroin use and overdose deaths, the task force is co-chaired by Lebanon Mayor Sherry Capello and Jim Donmoyer, executive director of the Lebanon County Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse.

It met for the first time on Sept. 18, just a day after a public forum on heroin sponsored by the Lebanon Daily News that attracted more than 200 people to HACC's Lebanon Campus, Donmoyer told the commissioners.

"It was a positive community response to what we are trying to do," he said. "It was really nice that our first task force meeting was the day after this public forum."

Donmoyer presented the commissioners with a list of nearly three dozen individuals representing drug treatment agencies, the health system, local government and law enforcement who attended the meeting held at the county's Mental Health/Intellectual Disability/Early Intervention offices on East Lehman Street.

The commissioners unanimously passed a resolution, formally appointing Donmoyer to the task force along with the others on the list, which included President Judge John C. Tylwalk, District Attorney David Arnold, county prison warden Robert Karnes, and county coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum. The task force list also included several LCCDAA board members, a half dozen treatment counselors, and two members of the general public who expressed interest in joining.

(We) "accept the list of folks on the heroin task force as presented by Mr. Donmoyer, and also give the full support of this board to Jim in coordinating and working with this heroin task force. It is very important to the community," said Chairman Bill Ames.

The heroin task force was inspired by and modeled after the county's suicide prevention task force, which he also sits on, Donmoyer said.

The number of suicides have declined since the formation of the suicide prevention task force initiated its campaign several years ago, and with 16 heroin deaths so far this year, Donmoyer said he is hoping for similar results.

"They started it because they had high numbers of suicides," he said. "I think the one year it peaked at 26, and I believe today we are talking about five or six for the year. That's a dramatic decrease, and I would hope to believe that task force had something to do with that." One of the first things the task force did, Donmoyer said, was come up with the following mission statement:

"To form a partnership of community members and government and medical agencies dedicated to eliminating the abuse of heroin in our community. To educate the citizens of Lebanon County about the prevalence of the heroin problem; the signs and symptoms of addiction and the resources available; and any drug related deaths and crime in our communities through public education, advocacy, media, law enforcement and legislation."

With so many people of varying expertise on the task force, Donmoyer told the commissioners, the plan is to form subcommittees with special areas of focus, although the details must still be worked out.

"Since it is a large group it would be tough to have that big of a group to come together on a lot of things we are going to need to discuss and decide. So we are going to branch off into probably four subcommittees," he said. "One will definitely be treatment. One will definitely be law enforcement."

The task force plans to meet every other month, with the smaller subcommittees meeting in the interim and everyone staying in touch with email blasts, Donmoyer added.