City Council approves $1.5M pilot program to fight opioid epidemic

'Project Save Lives' program will begin once funding is released

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville City Council on Tuesday night approved $1.5 million to fund a pilot program to fight the opioid epidemic in the area. 

In 2015, there were 45 heroin related deaths in North Florida. In Jacksonville, the number of 911 calls for suspected opioid overdoses tripled in the last two years. And in 2015, there were more than 10,700 emergency room visits attributed to opioid use in the state of Florida.

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Councilman Bill Gulliford met with an advisory board last week after presenting a proposal to help patients treated for overdoses enter rehabilitation programs.

The bill, which Gulliford requested emergency funding for, was approved at Tuesday evening's meeting of the City Council.

READ: Plan for opioid epidemic pilot program

The money will come from the fund balance.

The "Project Save Lives" program will begin once the funding is released and will last six months. The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department will oversee the program with the assistance of River Region Human Services, UF Health, St. Vincent's Hospital and Gateway Community Services.

Here's how the program will work: After an overdose patient is stable at the hospital, a peer counselor would offer a residential treatment program to overcome the patient's drug addiction. The program will last for at least 30 days for each patient. 

The residential services will cost $648,000, outpatient services will cost about $300,000 and medication will cost $80,000. Other costs include staffing, training and other expenses.

The advisory board hopes that in six months, there will be a decrease in drug overdoses and deaths in Duval County. 

Sara Mackelburg, an admissions specialist with Beaches Recovery, said she believes the pilot program will help people through one of the worst times in their lives.

Mackelburg, now 27, became clean at 24 after struggling with opioid addiction from the age of 14.

"It’s the hardest fight that you will ever go through," she said. "Even being clean and sober doesn’t make it easy, but it's worth it, and we do get better. We are not just bad people. We are making bad decisions because we are lost."


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