State announces Coordinated Opioid Recovery for Clay 

Florida Department of Health and Clay County officials held a news conference in Middleburg to announce the expansion of the state’s CORE opioid recovery program into Clay County.

In August, Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials first announced the program’s expansion into Clay.

The program is designed to get opioid users off what program director Kenneth Scheppke described as the overdose hamster wheel.

“They overdose, and 911 is called,” Scheppke said. “The patient is often given some medication to reverse the overdose; they are brought to the emergency department, the doctors and nurses there— great people, well-meaning— wait for the drugs to wear off and tell the patient to stop engaging in that behavior.” Scheppke added that the patient overdoses later in many cases, and the cycle starts over.

Under the new program, overdose patients will be taken to a specialty hospital with personnel trained in opioid addiction instead of being transported to the nearest emergency room.

From there, the patient will be placed in a long-term care facility and receive treatment for opioid addiction and any underlying problems, such as mental health issues.

The CORE program underwent a successful pilot in Palm Beach County. It is now being expanded to Clay, Brevard, Duval, Escambia, Gulf, Manatee, Marion, Pasco and Volusia counties.