According to the American Hospital Association, one in 12 people in the Tampa Bay region and West Central Florida area live with a substance use disorder.
To help bridge the gap between an overdose and recovery, the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay launched a new cmmunity paramedicine program in December 2024.
The free weeklong program medically assists patients while they detox and transition toward consultation at a substance use clinic.
“Everything here is managed from the point of the overdose to the point that I turn them over into long-term care at a substance use clinic. Then they'll continue getting their medication assisted treatment,” said Cameron Pelzel, a Crisis Center of Tampa Bay community paramedic.
During this period, a paramedic makes daily safety visits where they check a patient’s vitals and administer doses of the withdrawal drug, buprenorphine.
“Making sure that they are are started on the buprenorphine medication to reduce the cravings and help with the withdrawal process (makes) sure that they're not going to go back and try and take another opioid or overdose off of another opioid until they can get into a clinic,” Pelzel said.
The paramedics also connect the patients to one of the two substance use clinics in Hillsborough County with which the crisis center works.
Pelzel said the first 48 hours after an overdose is the most vulnerable time for someone that may experience another overdose.
“The likelihood of them overdosing again or having a fatal overdose is obviously high, so getting them connected to services immediately following the overdose is saving health care costs, especially in the emergency departments,” Pelzel said.
Pelzel said that between 2018 and 2022, there were 1,825 fatal opioid deaths in Hillsborough County alone. In addition, another 5,150 non-fatal opioid overdoses wound up in emergency rooms.
This surge of overdoses sparked the creation of Florida’s Coordinated Opioid Recovery program (CORE) three years ago, of which the crisis center is a member.
Pelzel said one of the challenges for the nonprofit crisis enter is that most of the other Florida counties that are cmembers of the CORE program run them through their local EMS or fire departments.
“With them being government-based, it was a little easier for them to make the connections in the community when it comes to seeing the overdose patients,” Pelzel said. “It's working here in Hillsborough County, definitely one of the larger counties in the state, and especially when it comes to the amount of overdoses that we see every year. ... It is 100% possible.”
Anyone interested in receiving more information or enrolling in the community paramedicine program can call (813) 969-4911 or email community.paramedic@crisiscenter.com.
