State surgeon general: CORE Network for opioid recovery now taking patients in Brevard
Three months after Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the expansion of a drug rehabilitation program throughout Florida, the Coordinated Opioid Recovery Network is taking patients in Brevard, officials said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
"I have a lot of confidence (this program) is going to be effective," said Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo at Brevard's Florida Department of Health building in Viera Thursday afternoon.
"Like many things we do in Florida in the public health arena, we bring common sense together with data and evidence, and that's what this program does."
The program, which started in Palm Beach County in February 2020, works as a collaboration between multiple hospitals, outpatient programs, emergency medical services and state agencies such as the Florida Department of Health and the Florida Department of Children and Family Services. It works to provide those with a substance abuse disorder ongoing and more comprehensive care than what they may have received in the past.
"Imagine you're in a car wreck, and EMS comes," said Dr. Kenneth Scheppke, deputy secretary for health at Florida Department of Health.
"They don't just haphazardly take you to the closest place ... they have specific protocols that they take, and they take you to a special hospital where the physicians and the ancillary healthcare providers have specific training. That's what we're going to do with this."
He added that emergency responders will be specifically trained in dealing with overdoses and will have specialized protocols to follow.Multiple people spoke at the press conference, including Assistant Secretary of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Erica Floyd Thomas from Department of Children and Families, Circles of Care's Executive Vice President Stephen Lord and Denny Kolsch, a Satellite Beach resident who was in recovery from substance abuse.
Ladapo said there were more overdoses in the United States in 2021 than any other year on record, with more than 100,000 people dying nationwide, and about 8,000 deaths in Florida.
In Brevard, CORE involves a network of agencies. The main agencies in the network include the Florida Department of Health; Circles of Care; Brevard County Fire Rescue;and Healthy Start Coalition of Brevard County. Others working within the program are Brevard Health Alliance; Health First; Parrish Medical Center; Brevard Prevention Coalition; Central Florida Treatment Center; and Central Florida Cares Health System.
Lord said patients can receive assistance at any Circles of Care facility in the county, though the type of assistance will vary depending on whether it is an inpatient or outpatient treatment facility.
"CORE allows us to break down the silos between (other agencies) to engage us all together and importantly, be able to reduce the barriers to getting folks from the emergency department to that next level of care," he said.
Kolsch, who grew up in Cape Canaveral and now lives in Satellite Beach, is a mental health counselor. He said he had been "fighting the disease of opioid use disorder for 20 years."
Over the past two decades, around 20 of his friends have died fighting addiction, he said.
"It touches everyone," Kolsch said. "Brevard County is typically in silos, and I think what we're trying to do here has really some ability to bring it all together. ... this is a really cool opportunity to actually just bring it all together."
Finch Walker is a breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @_finchwalker
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: CORE opioid recovery program ready for patients in Brevard
