Geauga County Commissioners recently extended their full support in addressing and preventing overdose and suicide fatalities in the county.
Geauga County Commissioners recently extended their full support in addressing and preventing overdose and suicide fatalities in the county.
They unanimously voted in favor of establishing an overdose and suicide fatality review committee March 18.
“This initiative, authorized under Ohio law, aims to bring together public health officials, mental health professionals, law enforcement and community leaders to analyze overdose and suicide deaths, identify systemic gaps and implement data-driven prevention strategies,” commissioners said in a press release last Tuesday.
While such a committee has been proposed in the past, previous plans fizzled out, Commissioner Carolyn Brakey said.
“A lot of this is looking at trend lines for suicide and drug overdose,” Geauga County Health Administrator Adam Litke explained at the meeting. “In Geauga right now, roughly, drug overdoses are a little less than 15 per 100,000 (people) per year and suicides are a little more than 12 per 100,0000.”
The review committee will comprise volunteers and involve groups such as the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office, Geauga County Coroner’s Office and Geauga County Board of Health working together to look for concerning trends, Litke said.
“And then we can look at education, we can look at trying to help with the sheriff’s office, is there certain areas we’re seeing this in,” he said. “It’s kind of a volunteer effort to help the community if we see something that can be listed as concerning in that aspect.”
The committee will be integral in preventing deaths, said Christine Lakomiak, executive director of the Geauga County Board of Mental Health and Recovery Services, in a press release.
“Drug overdose and suicide fatality review boards are crucial to developing a deeper understanding of the circumstances surrounding a death and developing recommendations to prevent similar deaths,” she said. “The interagency partnerships will lead to opportunities to enhance life-saving services and outreach in our community.”
The board will have various statutory appointments, including a law enforcement representative, public health official, the executive director of the mental health board and a licensed physician, Brakey said last Tuesday.
The information the board analyzes can potentially be used to enhance lifesaving services, mental health board Treasurer Jim Mausser added.
“We have great services in Geauga County as it stands, and this is just something that would enhance what we are doing and bring community leaders together,” mental health board member Kathy Johnson said. “So, it would be a collaborative in the county to look at these (deaths.)”
Brakey noted the board also looks at demographics and then uses the different stakeholders to target at-risk populations.
There are real people behind the statistics who are somebody’s family or neighbor, she added.
“They’re more than just numbers, they’re lives that matter, and I hope this committee would be able to identify needs and work together and perhaps give some hope to the people that feel hopeless in our county,” she said.
Commissioner Jim Dvorak asked if boards like this are common across the state.
Litke confirmed many counties are in the process of creating them.
