Seminole Sheriff, AdventHealth fight opioid crisis with new drug rehab facility
An empty old building in Altamonte Springs — across the street from one of the largest hospitals in the region — could soon be transformed into an intensive rehabilitation facility, where dozens of patients would live for as long as a month to battle drug addictions.
The proposed AdventHealth Hope & Healing Center is the latest innovative plan in the private-public partnership between the hospital system and the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office to combat the deadly opioid epidemic, and curb the number of addicts being repeatedly booked into the county jail.
“Once upon a time, people would see somebody in a mental health crisis or addiction and the first response was typically to incarcerate somebody,” Seminole Sheriff Dennis Lemma said. “We now recognize that is incredibly expensive and typically ineffective…I think we’ve become more mindful of other options in lieu of incarceration.”
The new facility, off State Road 436, would follow the smaller AdventHealth Hope & Healing Center, which opened in March 2021, across from the Seminole County Jail in Sanford. That Sanford facility has since treated about 500 patients.
But the current Hope & Healing Center has just 10 beds and serves only male patients in a cramped space of just 5,000 square feet. The new Altamonte Springs facility — targeted to open in late 2024 — is more than three times the size of the Sanford building and would allow beds for 15 men and 12 women in dorm rooms.
County commissioners are scheduled to give final approval to the proposal in January.
Formerly a medical supply store, the 15,500-square-foot building proposed for the new rehabilitation facility would be leased for $1.4 million through October 2027 from the current owners.
According to plans, the county would spend $3 million to renovate the inside of the structure to accommodate patients and staff. Seminole would tap some of the $9 million in funds designated to the Sheriff’s Office from the American Rescue Plan Act and the nearly $31 million Seminole is projected to receive through 2039 from the opioid settlement.
In 2018, the state of Florida sued 11 companies for wrongful conduct in the opioid epidemic that led to thousands of deaths. Of the $26 billion in settlement funds awarded to governments nationwide, Florida stands to receive more than $500 million that will be distributed to qualified counties, including Seminole.
The new center would be operated and staffed entirely by AdventHealth. But the Sheriff’s Office would contribute about $550,000 annually to help run the facility.
The center gives the Sheriff’s Office somewhere to direct adults with addictions who may have been receiving care only while incarcerated at the county jail. It also gives AdventHealth’s emergency room professionals a place to send people without insurance to help them get clean.
Typically, physicians and medical staff at the hospitals or jail would quickly treat addicts and release them, creating a seemingly endless cycle, said Dr. Scott Tucker, of AdventHealth and the center’s director, who helped create the Hope & Healing Center program.
“I wanted to make this something different and something special than what you would see at an average treatment center,” Tucker said.
Under the collaboration with AdventHealth and the Sheriff’s Office, a person would be screened by a licensed health professional at the jail or emergency room and then referred voluntarily to the Hope & Healing Center.
“We look at this facility as a safe haven for a family to say: You know what, we don’t know what to do,” said Lemma, noting that the new facility is advantageously located across the street from a hospital emergency room.
Besides a 30-day stay, individuals can go through weekly therapy sessions, receive counseling and choose from strategies to avoid relapses.
“The national average for relapse is between 40% and 60%. Our relapse rate last year was 30%,” Tucker said. “And 30% may sound like a large number, but when it comes to substance use, it truly is a very small number.”
Drug overdose deaths soared by 70% in Central Florida in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. But last year, Seminole saw overdose deaths — including those caused by opioids, heroin and painkillers — drop by nearly 21% last year.
“While we’re seeing a reduction in overdoses and overdose deaths, at this point, substance use and the co-occuring mental health disorders remain one of the most pressing issues in our community,” said Sheriff’s spokesperson Bob Kealing in an email to the Sentinel. “Sheriff Lemma’s core philosophy is that crime is a symptom of another problem. And at the top of those problems are mental health and substance use disorders.”
At a board meeting this month, Seminole commissioners voiced support for the new facility and expansion of the Hope & Healing Center.
“Obviously, this is incredibly needed,” Commissioner Amy Lockhart said.
But, she and other commissioners questioned whether Seminole will continue financially supporting the facility after the ARPA and opioid settlement funds run out.
County officials estimated it would cost Seminole about $5 million a year to operate both Hope & Healing centers.
“I envision this going into the private sector lane because I have no interest in my tax dollars or my kids’ tax dollars funding this for ever and ever,” Lemma said. “As people are diverted from the normal criminal justice system, as they are getting healthy, and getting employed and finding sobriety, it means generations of their families are not being raised on our tax dollars.”
