Pasco County’s Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) team is expanding outreach and treatment-in-place services using opioid settlement and related abatement funds, Pasco Fire Rescue and BayCare officials said on the Pasco County podcast.

MIH supervisor Eric Monroe said the program — which has been operating for about three years — has grown to seven team members and added a nurse practitioner and vehicles with the recent funding. “The goal is to give the access to care so our team can treat in place whether it's medications or, whatever they may need medically, socially,” Monroe said. He described the team as “a team of medical professionals” that includes community paramedics, social workers and a nurse practitioner.

The expansion aims to identify people after overdose or other emergency calls, provide on-site screening and short-term support, then make a “warm handoff” to behavioral-health providers. Sonya Buffey, clinical manager at BayCare, said BayCare coordinates follow-up care and will continue to follow patients to ensure ongoing engagement. “Support is important,” Buffey said. “We follow them for a period of time to make sure that they're continuing to be engaged.”

Why this matters: program leaders said local treatment capacity now includes same-day behavioral health urgent care and local bed spaces for recovery services, reducing the need for emergency-department visits and long waits for outpatient treatment. Buffey said the county’s behavioral health urgent care is the first of its kind in Florida; Monroe said the opioid task force (OTF) funding allowed the MIH team to add staff and vehicles, improving its ability to intervene before an emergency department visit or worse.

Operational details discussed on the podcast include: active capture of leads from frontline 911 and emergency-response crews, follow-up check-ins at roughly 30, 60 and 90 days, distribution of harm-reduction materials including naloxone, and a 24/7 on-call number for people in crisis. Monroe said MIH staff screen referrals from patient care records or crew referrals and conduct in-person visits whenever possible. “We go out there, we meet people where they are at to deliver them their healthcare or social needs,” he said.

Speakers described the partnership as collaborative and iterative: MIH performs immediate, short-term medical and engagement work while BayCare and peer recovery staff handle longer-term case management, therapy and placement into treatment programs. Buffey highlighted the role of staff with lived experience, noting that some peer supports have become case managers and therapists after recovery.

Officials emphasized that the funds supporting the expansion come from opioid-related settlements and other abatement grants routed through agencies such as the Florida Department of Children and Families and the Department of Health, but they did not specify dollar amounts or detailed budget lines on the podcast. Monroe said the settlement-related funding allowed the program to hire additional staff and outfit new vehicles; exact funding amounts were not provided.

Program leaders also discussed prevention and community education goals. Buffey said she would like to “get upstream more, do some more prevention, some more education, and prevent the issues that we're seeing.” Monroe said expanding treatment-in-place and maintaining local capacity so residents “have them here in Pasco County” are priorities.

The podcast episode presented descriptions of ongoing operations and aspirations but did not record any formal county decisions or votes. Officials described current practices, funding sources in general terms and next-step ambitions for prevention and capacity building.