A Schuylkill County agency is aiming to use details of overdose deaths to save lives.

The county Drug & Alcohol office has applied for a $10,000 grant to develop a Localized Overdose Fatality Review Team, or LOFRT.

Elaine J. Gilbert, administrator of the county’s Mental Health, Developmental Services and Drug & Alcohol Programs, said the grant would come through the state Department of Health.

The agency needs to develop policies and procedures and submit them to the state by August.

The DOH will “give us technical help and resources to put the policies and procedures together. Once they approve the final product, they’ll give us the $10,000,” she said. “Both coroner’s office and Drug & Alcohol will decide how the money will be used.”

The team, Gilbert said, will seek “common denominators that we can look at and use toward prevention. It’s not a bad thing to have in this county.”

“To make this successful, we need to work with the coroner’s office. That office is in favor of the team,” she said.

County Coroner Dr. David T. Moylan sees the team as a step in the right direction.

“Their heart’s in the right place,” he said. “We need more tools to stop this epidemic.”

Deputy Coroner John J. Mika III also is heartened by the proposed Overdose Fatality Review Team.

He sees firsthand the tragic consequences of illegal drug abuse.

“Any weapon at our disposal will help,” Mika said.

He spoke of the benefits of teamwork in fighting what he describes as the scourge of drug abuse.

“All of us have different resources we bring to the table. The more resources you have, the better you can go on the offensive” to prevent overdoes.

The coroner’s office has a good working relationship with law enforcement, and government agencies and departments.

The LOFRT would provide “more eyes and more hands to meet a common goal - overdose prevention.

“The more you share information and work together, the stronger you become as a group and as a county,” Mika said.

The numbers of lives lost to drug overdoses is disheartening.

So far this year, there have been 28 drug-related deaths, with an additional seven or eight toxicology tests still out. Last year there were 115, and in 2020, there were 120.

Especially concerning to him is the prevalence of fentanyl related deaths.

Drug dealers have been lacing marijuana with the synthetic opioid drug, fentanyl, a powerful painkiller 50 times more potent than heroin.

It’s becoming more common for dealers to add fentanyl to other drugs like marijuana or heroin. It’s cheaper, and more intense and addictive. People buying the drugs often don’t know fentanyl has been added, making overdoses more likely.

Mika compared buying marijuana on the street to a suicide game.

“It’s like playing Russian roulette. You play it often enough and eventually you’re going to get the round in the chamber,” he said.

How a LOFRT works

The concept of LOFRT was created by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program Resource Center, “the purpose of an Overdose Fatality Review is to effectively identify system gaps and innovative community-specific overdose prevention and intervention strategies,” according to a publication about the teams.

The teams are composed of people from different areas of expertise. They meet to examine an overdose victim’s drug use history, any other factors that might have contributed to his or her death, major health events, social-emotional trauma (including adverse childhood experiences), encounters with law enforcement and the criminal justice system, treatment history, and other factors, including local conditions, to facilitate a deeper understanding of the missed opportunities for prevention and intervention that may have prevented an overdose death, according to the center.

By doing a series of overdose fatality reviews, the teams are expected to discern “patterns of need and opportunity, not only within specific agencies but across systems,” according to the center.

With input from public health, public safety, providers, and the community, the teams develop recommendations to improve coordination between agencies to prevent future overdose deaths.

Support from lawmakers

While there’s nothing that actually stops counties from developing teams, State Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh, has initiated a bill that “would set up a structure, provide legal protection, and create incentives” to develop them.

“Many counties, including my own in Lehigh, are reluctant to move forward, fearing lawsuits,” he said.

Similar legislation has been introduced in Washington, New Jersey, and New York in “recognition that these teams often yield faster recommendations than state or national agencies, allowing local authorities to quickly respond to emerging overdose trends,” Schlossberg wrote in a memo attached to his proposal.

“In recognition of their value, I will be introducing legislation to allow local communities and agencies across Pennsylvania to establish overdose fatality review teams. Similar to Pennsylvania’s Methadone Death and Incident Review Team, localized overdose fatality review teams will bring together representatives from various public safety, public health, and social service agencies to identify system gaps and opportunities in order to prevent future overdose deaths,” Schlossberg wrote.

“The overdose crisis is not stagnant, instead it is rapidly shifting; as such, the need for timely, in-depth data and actionable recommendations has become increasingly vital,” he wrote.

Schlossberg’s bill was unanimously approved by the House on Nov. 17; as of Nov. 22, it was in the hands of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.