CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — A new program is helping those who are battling drug addiction.
The Community Paramedicine Program was launched by Citrus County Fire Rescue in collaboration with the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) and Florida Department of Children and Families. The initiative is made possible by funding from the opioid settlement, intended to mitigate the opioid epidemic on affected communities throughout the state.
The program’s sole duty is focusing on the opioid epidemic within the county and searching for those patients who want help.
“We can be out there within 30 to 40 minutes depending on where it is in the county, assess them, assess their need, contact our online medical control doctor — who helps us with this program, agrees with the program and loves the program — and then start a plan for them in order to get them the help they need,” says Jason Morgan, division chief of EMS for Citrus County Fire Rescue. “That’s long-term help.”
Right now, Citrus County Fire Rescue has two county paramedics fulfilling that role. Morgan says he’s hopeful the program will expand, allowing more paramedics to be hired.
It’s a duty that requires plenty of patience and community connections.
“Thirty years of doing this, of EMS. I’m still here so, obviously, I must like doing it. I must,” he said.
Every day, county paramedic Gronn Morgan goes out for a drive, with each day bringing a familiar mission — visiting those who need help with overcoming drug addiction.
“The best way we describe it is we’re a bridge program — from where they’re at by themselves to that long-term care,” says Gronn Morgan. “We get them there so they don’t relapse and that’s really the focus of all this is to get people to the long-term care without them falling through the cracks.”
Gronn Morgan is one of two paramedics in Citrus County who are part of the new paramedicine program. Part of his daily routine is serving as a bridge between those offering help and those who need help.
Only on this particular call, one of his patients wasn’t answering.
“We’ll try again tomorrow, call them again, stop by the house again and see if anyone shows up. If I get two or three days with nobody home and no answer and nothing looks like it’s changed outside, I’ll probably talk to one of the neighbors and see if there’s something changed — like they went to a nursing home or they went on vacation. But it’s only been a few days since the referral went in, so where’d they go?”
Sometimes the job yields different results than expected. And sometimes those results can be a pleasant surprise.
One of Morgan’s clients is Roger Terras, who’s been sober more than 50 days.
”You just have to make that choice to one — not do the same thing or see the same person, do whatever you can to get money,” said Terras, who is a patient. “You forget about family, friends, morals or principles. All you care about is one thing, and it’s killing people.”
It’s been a battle for Terras and others like him wanting to get clean. A battle made a little easier with the right kind of help and someone like Morgan on his side.
“It’s going to be days of sometimes of you know, ‘I don’t feel so good’ and days of ‘Let’s keep at it and keep going to the doctor’s office, keep taking the medication,’” said Morgan. “It’s going to be a process and not everybody is happy with the process. Some people give up on it too soon. Roger is staying with it and I am so happy he’s staying with it. He’s going to make it.”
It made this daily routine that much more meaningful for this paramedic.
Calvin Lewis
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