Pubdate: Sat, 09 Feb 2013 Source: Standard-Speaker (Hazleton, PA) Copyright: 2013 The Standard-Speaker Contact: http://www.standardspeaker.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1085 Author: Shawn Kellmer, Staff Writer COUNSELOR: DRUG OVERDOSES RAISE NEED FOR SUPPORT GROUP More than 20 people overdosed on drugs, primarily heroin, and died last year in Greater Hazleton, according to the leader of a local drug and alcohol abuse counseling agency. The figure is striking, according to Ed Pane of Serento Gardens, and illustrates the need for a new support group for people who lost a family member or friend to a drug overdose. Serento Gardens will debut this type of program at 6:30 p.m. Monday, and the support group will meet every Monday at that time at Serento Gardens, now located at 145 W. Broad St. (second floor) in Hazleton. Pane said family and friends of an overdose victim feel deprived of the right to grieve and often have difficulty answering questions about how the person died. "An honest answer often leads to an awkward silence. The only other people who can truly understand this loss are those who have been through it themselves," Pane said. Pane will lead the support group, but not as a therapist. "This is not a therapy group. Rather, it is a support group, a place for people who have experienced a common loss to come together in mutual understanding and support," he said. Serento Gardens also is planning to create a "memory wall" when the agency completes its relocation to the former M&T Bank building on West Broad Street. The wall will be a place for family and friends to hang photographs of those they have lost along with a brief message. "This is for the family members. So if they wish, they can say, 'This is my child, we love them and their lives mattered,'" Pane said. The group is free and open to anyone. For more information or to make a monetary donation for the memory wall, call Serento Gardens at 570-455-9902 or email Further support is available at www.grasphelp.org - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D