Wyoming County councilman Tom Henry has made it his personal mission to fight the opioid epidemic.
Once the state announced that counties could be eligible for opioid settlement payments, Henry said he jumped on the opportunity, filing Wyoming County’s paperwork first in the state.
After being personally impacted by opioid- related loss and watching community members go through addiction, Henry said he saw the settlement as a concrete way to impact positive change in his community.
Once the request for funds was approved, Henry initiated the creation of an opioid commission, which meets monthly to discuss how to spend the nearly $300,000 in funds the county has been paid so far.
Now, due to the commission’s work and Henry’s passion for helping the community, Wyoming County residents can expect drug deactivation systems called Deterra kits in the mail before September, which is National Recovery Month, ends.
Wyoming County will receive $1 million in settlement funds over 18 years as a result of a lawsuit filed by the state against pharmaceutical companies for their role in the opioid epidemic.
Eligibility for the funds depends on the population of the county, as well as the number of opioid overdoses that occurred in the county, so Wyoming County received significantly less than counties like Luzerne and Lackawanna, which received more than $1 million so far.
Henry is thrilled about the commission’s work and can’t wait for Wyoming County residents to get their hands on the Deterra Kits.
“It's been a personal goal to do this,” Henry said. “I've seen so many people [affected], and I was affected personally by the opioid epidemic. So I want to reach out and help everyone I can.”
Deterra kits allow for the safe disposal of medications, rather than flushing them or throwing them away and potentially harming the environment.
While the FDA has found minimal environmental impacts of flushing drugs, Henry was not convinced by those findings.
“I don't know how it could be healthy to put that in our water system,” Henry said.
John Alunni, Wyoming County’s human services and children and youth administrator, believes Deterra Kits to be the ideal drug disposal method.
“This is best practice because I know for a fact that this is destroyed. Given the different populations that could potentially harm themselves, even accidentally, I think knowing that it's actually destroyed [and] deactivated is probably your best measure,” Alunni said.
The bags are filled with charcoal, which neutralizes chemicals. The kit can neutralize 45 pills, six ounces of liquid medication or six opioid patches.
The medications are neutralized about 30 seconds after adding water to the pills in the Deterra pouch, making them safe to throw away. Once the water is added, a sizzling sound will confirm the neutralization process.
About 17,000 kits will be distributed, one for each household in the county as well as every mailbox at Keystone College by mid-September.
Initially, Alunni and other county officials only thought of sending the kits to households, but realized the impact of including Keystone College.
“You're hitting a whole different demographic there,” Alunni said. “If you have an individual who you know has the possibility of developing some kind of substance use disorder, this might be very good for them in that kind of setting, or if they have a roommate that they're concerned about, this is a discrete way to get rid of that medication.”
Along with college students, Alunni identified elderly residents and children as other target populations for this project.
“One of the leading causes for child fatalities in the state of Pennsylvania is accidental ingestion. There’s a potential for real harm there,” he said.
For the elderly population, mobility issues could prevent them from getting to prescription take back locations like the Wyoming County courthouse. Sending the Deterra kits directly to residents can combat accessibility issues.
Elderly residents also deal with unused hospice treatments from loved ones who passed, making them easy targets.
“If you have an individual who lost a loved one, and maybe they have another loved one who has a substance use disorder, they could potentially divert that medication and use it for illicit reasons,” Alunni said.
Officials in the county designated about $75,000 on obtaining and distributing Deterra kits to residents out of the nearly $300,000 the county has received thus far.
Spending of the funds must be compliant with the state’s Opioid Trust guidelines.
Henry say they intend to spend it all and “not have to give one cent back.”
Wyoming County has also spent about $70,000 of the funds on the salary for a co-responder position that addresses incidents that are human services based rather than law enforcement based.
Henry and the commission have already received positive feedback on that position and the Deterra project, which motivates them to keep investing in these programs.
“The impact has been huge and lots of people have reached out and thanked us for doing what we do,” Henry said. “That's the reward there to see that it's helping so many people.”
The commission will wait until the Deterra kits have been distributed before deciding if they will send another round. For now, extra kits can be found at the courthouse for those wanting more.
Wyoming County collaborated with other local counties and is eager to share ideas that will help to improve communities.
“Nobody's recreating the wheel,” Alunni said. “We're kind of all borrowing each other's magic.”
Now, neighboring counties look to Wyoming County as inspiration.
Luzerne County opioid commissioner and councilman John Lombardo was impressed with Wyoming County’s use of the funds, despite the difference in population between the two counties.
“We're certainly looking for some inspiration,” Lombardo said. “That is definitely something interesting that Wyoming County is doing. So we'll certainly look into it. Obviously, there's quite a few more households in Luzerne County than there are in Wyoming County, so that might be a little more expensive for us, but we'll definitely look into it.”
Lombardo shared that Luzerne County is compiling a proposal for the Opioid Trust to spend the more than $1 million in funds the county’s received so far.
Proposed uses are expansions of already existing programs, including increasing Subutex treatment, an opioid addiction treatment drug, in the prison, fortifying the warm hand-off services for those surviving opioid addiction to transfer from emergency medical care to specialized addiction treatment and increased opioid prevention education programming in county schools.
Barbara Durkin, Lackawanna County’s drug and alcohol program director, said the county has received $1.9 million and spent $500,000 so far. Like the other counties, Lackawanna has an opioid settlement committee and is looking for ideas on how to spend the rest of the money.
“Deterra kits are great and very useful. I think that Lackawanna County has dispersed Deterra kits using other funds and would do that in the future,” Durkin said.
