ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando Health is expanding its Opioid Navigator Program to reach more individuals struggling with opioid use disorder.
The program launched in 2019 at Orlando Health Regional Medical Center.
Jamie Bridges is the director of the Opioid Substance Use Disorders program at Orlando Health and said expanding the Opioid Navigator program has always been in the plans.
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“Being able to expand and grow this program is, you know, basically like living a dream,” Bridges said.
Bridges is also a former police officer who is in recovery herself.
“Fourteen years ago, when I left law enforcement, and not on my own terms, but in decisions that were made with an addict brain, you know, and I wasn’t myself in that regard, but I never would have dreamed that I would be standing here,” Bridges said. “But what I will tell you is when I got into recovery, I was constantly told, trust the process, trust the process and just keep doing the next right thing and the things will come to you.”
Since its inception in 2019, the program has continued to grow.
It is now expanding to the Dr. P. Phillips Hospital and Health Central Hospital, thanks to settlement funds distributed to Orange County from national litigation involving companies that manufactured, sold, or distributed opioid painkillers.
According to Orlando Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that out of the nearly 107,000 overdose deaths in 2022, more than 75% involved opiates.
The settlement funds will allow for the addition of two more opioid navigators who are licensed clinical social workers and will underwrite salaries for two certified recovery peer specialists.
“This program allows our peers to follow them for 90 days,” Bridges said. “They meet with them weekly with working on treatment plans, working on, ‘What are your goals?’ They meet at coffee shops. Sometimes they may do it over the phone if the person is working or the peer can’t get to them for whatever reason they’re you know, they meet weekly for that 90 days and they work through treatment plans and goals.
Bridges acknowledges that not all patients are ready to seek help, but the program’s offer always stands.
“If they say, ‘I’m not ready for all that, but I’ll at least take some Narcan and your phone number,’ to me, that’s success,” Bridges says.
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