Bucks County plans for behavioral health urgent care center at Doylestown Hospital

A behavioral health urgent care to help families facing a mental health or drug-related crisis is being planned for Central Bucks, the chair of the Bucks County’s Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee announced last week.

The committee has been tasked with how to spend the $45-million settlement the county expects to receive from pharmaceutical distributors and a manufacturer for their roles in the devastating opioid epidemic in accordance with a legal settlement.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who was elected governor in November, negotiated a $1 billion settlement with three distributors (AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson) and one manufacturer (Johnson & Johnson) that played a major role in the opioid epidemic across the United States.  Of the nearly 92,000 U.S. deaths from drug overdoses in 2020, 75% involved opioids, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states.

The county is working with  Doylestown Hospital, the Lenape Valley Foundation and other key players on a proposal to build the center on hospital grounds, said Diane Rosati, director of the Bucks County Drug and Alcohol Commission, who chairs the advisory committee. She said the committee initially has allocated $900,000 toward the "multi, multi-million dollar project."

More:Bucks County officials hear from those on frontline of addiction about how to spend $45M in aid

The Lenape Valley Foundation provides a variety of services throughout the county to those facing mental health, substance use or intellectual or developmental disabilities. Doylestown Hospital referred comment on the project to the foundation which is directing development of the urgent care and also provides mental health services at Lower Bucks Hospital.

“It has a lot of support ... It is a great Bucks County collaborative project,” said Lenape CEO Sharon Curran. “We’re starting from scratch with this project.”  She said grants from several different groups and agencies are being sought to fund the urgent care's development.

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Rosati also outlined other planned uses for the settlement funds at last week's commissioners' meeting.  The committee held two public forums as they devised the plan over the summer. Initially it will use $1.866 million that the county has received as its first installment of the settlement.  The plan calls for programs in drug prevention, treatment, recovery and to cover administrative costs.

The commissioners must approve any specific uses of the county funds before the programs can be implemented.

Among the suggestions are the purchase of a mobile van to take prevention education services to communities throughout Bucks County, summer camps for children to help them avoid drug use, mini-grants for community groups, transportation for people to treatment programs as well as housing for women in recovery who have children.

Rosati said that the committee plans to expand the availability and distribution of naloxone, more commonly known as Narcan, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose "so any resident and anyone who is interested in receiving Narcan will have it."

DiGirolamo to represent several counties on abatement trust board

County Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo, who has long been an advocate for drug prevention and treatment programs, will represent Southeastern Pennsylvania on the statewide Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust  that will devise how future settlement funds will be allocated.

He was nominated by Bucks Commissioner Chairman Bob Harvie and will represent Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lehigh, Montgomery and Northampton counties. A Republican who served in the state House of Representatives before becoming a county commissioner, DiGirolamo was recently honored by the Drug & Alcohol Service Providers Association of Pennsylvania with its “Spirit of Pennsylvania” Award for the work he did  in ensuring that Narcan is readily available across the state.

“It’s hard to begin to find ways to say ‘thank you’ to former state Rep. Gene DiGirolamo,” said Deb Beck, Executive Director of DASPOP. “This man has done a ton of lifesaving work in addiction treatment.” 

DiGirolamo said he was honored both by the award and being chosen to serve on the state committee.

“I am honored to be appointed to represent the region on this panel. I’ll work to ensure that Bucks County and our neighbors are able to receive and deploy the resources we need to tackle the serious problem of addiction affecting so many in our communities.”

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bucks County eyes Doylestown Hospital for mental health urgent care