Maureen Dunleavy, regional vice president for the Guidance Care Center, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the organization.
The Guidance Care Center has been in the Keys for about 53 years.
Dunleavy said, “We have four sites throughout the Keys. Three are our outpatient sites, and we also have an assisted living facility for individuals with mental illness. We do the entire continuum of care, so everything from prevention to our inpatient unit, which is crisis stabilization and detox for adults in Marathon. And we have a 24 hour crisis line for anyone who is in a behavioral health crisis, 305-434-7660, number eight. And in fact, you can reach all of our services at that main number. Just listen to the script, and it’ll prompt you to where to go.”
Opioid overdose prevention is another thing Guidance Care Center can help with.
Dunleavy said, “This opioid epidemic has started in the last couple years. We’ve talked before about opioid overdose. We know that there are more and more arrests for fentanyl, which is an opiate and oftentimes it’s put into other other drugs. A lot of people didn’t intend to become addicted to opiates. Maybe they have them prescribed when they were having surgery or they had chronic pain, and then throughout the course of time of being on those too long, they got to the point of addiction. So they’re drugs that are very powerful and have a high risk of overdose. So we historically have had a lot of deaths, and so Guidance Care Center, along with the state of Florida and the Department of Health have been working in our community health improvement plan to really address opioid overdose prevention, because there’s a lot of things that can be done that anyone can do to help cure this epidemic.”
Narcan is also offered at the Guidance Care Center.
Dunleavy said, “Narcan is available for free of charge. You can get it at any Guidance Care Center. You can also get it through the Department of Health, and it’s a really good tool to have in your first aid kit. It’s a nasal spray that you’re able to provide if someone collapses or could be overdosing. And the really great thing about it is it doesn’t hurt someone if they’re not overdosing. So for example, if someone’s having a diabetic reaction, and it’s really a blood sugar issue, and you administer Narcan, you’re not going to hurt the person, but what it does do is, in the fact, if someone is overdosing, it allows you life saving minutes to be able to get EMS there. So you call 911, you get your Narcan kit. You administer Narcan and it provides extra minutes for life until EMS gets there, because what it does is actually reverse the opioid in your system. So what happens is your whole breathing shuts down, so there’s no struggle to breathe or anything else. Your whole respiratory system just is depressed, and you just stop breathing. And so if someone’s not available to give you Narcan, and or call 911, unfortunately, many people end up being a fatality. And then I know a lot of people may think, well, I don’t know any addicts, or I don’t need this, you never know. So it’s good to have in your first aid kit, and it’s free. It’s something we’ve been doing for the last couple years with the state of Florida, and we give out kits to anyone who comes in for services that has used opioids or has an opioid diagnosis. We also give it to family members, friends, law enforcement. I mean, we even had one person that was walking down Duval Street and had it in their backpack and was able to save a life. It can be used really easily, and it’s something good to have on hand.”
There is also a substance abuse treatment program.
Dunleavy said, “We have several substance abuse treatment programs that are specific to helping people to stop using opiates and get on other medications. We help people, whether you can pay for it or not. So if you are afraid of coming in or getting information, because you don’t want to get a large bill, that’s not going to happen. So we don’t want to lose one more life in this community. And there are many medications out there today. Some are monthly injections, some are daily pills to be able to help combat the opioid use disorder. And it also doesn’t mean that you’re going to be on them forever. We’ve done a lot to try to get people on these medications. The term is medication assisted treatment, and so really, to be able to help them so we save more lives in this community. Last year and this year, we’ve also expanded those services. So if someone comes into our jail and they’re already on medication assisted treatment, our substance abuse treatment staff that is at the jail in our jail in house program, can help keep people on those medications while they’re in jail. Also, if someone comes to the ER and they’ve overdosed, we’re able to help them on our detox unit to help get them on medication assisted treatment. And so those two programs have been really pivotal. And we looked at the numbers from 2024 and 2022 and these are available on the Florida charts website that the Department of Health runs, but we’ve actually reduced fatalities. So the number is going down, and we know the highest risk of death is when somebody leaves a contained environment where they have not been able to use, such as jail or hospital or treatment facility. If they go back to using, oftentimes, they’re going to use at a level that their body can’t handle, and it’s going to result in an overdose.”
Anyone who would like more information is welcome to stop by the Guidance Care Center.
Dunleavy said, “You can stop by during business hours to pick up that Narcan kit, or just to stop by and pick up a brochure or see what’s available. You don’t have to be a client to pick up a Narcan kit. You just go to the front desk and say, I’d like to have a Narcan kit, and they will give you one. So our sites are open Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm with the exception of, obviously, holidays, but we don’t have any of those coming up until Memorial Day. And of course, lots of information available on our website. The main number is 305-434-7660, you can listen to the script, and it will go through every office and every service to be able to reach a particular program or person. And of course, if you’re in crisis, don’t listen to the entire script, just press the number eight, and you’ll be connected to the mobile crisis response team, and we will get someone out to you in order to help you so that we don’t lose any more lives in this community. 988 is a suicide prevention hotline. So that is also available, and you can also text to them to that line. It’s available on the suicide prevention hotline. Just please remember that we don’t want to lose one more life in this community, help is available. Please reach out and we can help you and your loved ones. Don’t be afraid, because we help people, whether you can pay for it or not.”
For more information, click here: https://guidancecarecenter.org/v