Multiple Douglas County agencies are planning to reassemble a study group on substance abuse in response to widespread opioid, methamphetamine and alcohol problems, a nonprofit official told county leaders Wednesday.

Sandra Dixon, DCCCA director of behavioral health services, said the study group had stopped meeting about 18 months ago as many of its members focused on other behavioral health initiatives.

“We’re going to put that group back together and go back to the data,” she said. “… We are concerned about opioids. We are not at the level of other communities, but we know we have a burgeoning issue. So one of the things we want to do is look at the data and make decisions on how we want to intervene.”

Dixon said she would be on the study group with Jason Hess, executive director of the Heartland Regional Alcohol and Drug Assessment Center, and representatives from Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical, the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, Lawrence Memorial Hospital and Douglas County District Court. County staff and representatives from school districts would also be in the group, she said.

Dixon and Hess also updated commissioners on the progress of their agencies in two of the new behavioral health initiatives the commission agreed to fund last summer: the $397,000 integrated team that is to provide support for those in crisis in LMH’s five behavioral health emergency room beds, and the $150,000 program that has DCCCA sending qualifying county residents to out-of-county detoxification treatment centers, which are unavailable in Douglas County.

Although the multiagency crisis team is still being assembled, Dixon said DCCCA has responded to 20 LMH emergency room calls since starting its role in the program on March 2. She said it offered support to 17 patients during that time and placed 15 in treatment.

In other business, county commissioners learned from Sean Reid, director of county zoning and codes, that the county would schedule a meeting with residents in the area of Lone Star Lake at 6 p.m. May 10 at the Lone Star Community Building. Discussion at the meeting will concern permit regulations for docks and accessory buildings, a possible special Lone Star Lake zoning district and the survey of property lines county public works is now conducting.