PERRY, Fla. (WTXL) — A new collaboration seeks to address the opioid overdose epidemic in Taylor County.
Taylor County, Doctors' Memorial Hospital, Apalachee Center, and Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare will work together to leverage the CORE Model for the treatment of opioid use disorder. CORE stands for Coordinated Opioid Recovery. The model relies upon first responders, hospital teams, and treatment facilities working together.
Primary care physicians would provide oversight. Patients would also have access to medical assessments, mental health evaluations, medication-assisted treatment, routine healthcare, peer support and social services.
In a statement announcing the partnership, Dr. Jay Reeve, President & CEO of Apalachee Center says "Rapid access to care and warm hand-offs to ongoing follow-up- make all the difference in helping those at risk of overdose survive and begin their path to long-term recovery.”
Apalachee Center and TMH have already been collaborating to provide services at Live Oak Behavioral Health Management.
The new partnership is funded through money from the Florida Opioid Allocation and Statewide Response Agreement. That agreement resulted from a lawsuit against pharmaceutical supply chain companies involved in making, marketing, promoting, and distributing opioids.
In the current fiscal year, cities and counties are splitting more than $25 million. That's in addition to regional and statewide funding from the settlement.
According to the State Opioid Dashboard, the number of responses to non-fatal Opioid overdoses in Taylor County had dropped significantly from 29 cases in 2018, to just six in 2022 (the latest year data was available). There were four drug overdose deaths in 2022, but none of those were attributed to opioids. Between 2018 and 2022, four out of the 17 overdose deaths in the county were blamed on opioids.
Taylor County ranked lower than all other counties in 2022 for the Opioid Dashboard's vulnerability index, and the opioid index score. The latter score is based on vulnerability compared to estimated spending on opioid treatment.
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