A year since Fort Walton Beach launched the Post Overdose Support Team, Police Chief Robert Bage presented some early successes of the program to Okaloosa County Commissioners.
The POST program was a response to statistics released in late 2023 that put Okaloosa as one of the top seven counties in the state for opioid deaths.
"That means we had more per capita overdose deaths than Jacksonville, Tampa, Miami — places that you would associate with drug deaths and drug overdoses," Bage said, addressing the commissioners at the Aug. 19 meeting. "We ranked greater than them per capita. We knew something had to be done."
The Medical Examiner District 1, which includes Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties, was No. 1 in the state with the most deaths per capita.
Bage looked into a program suggested by the Bridgeway Center known as the Drug Abuse Response Team (DART), which was piloted by Daytona Beach.
"I went down to Daytona, evaluated the program and brought it back here," said Bage. "We said within six months, we wanted to pilot a similar program. I don't think anything has ever been done in government as quickly or sufficiently as we got the POST support team running."
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POST works by contacting someone 24 to 72 hours after an opioid reversal drug such as Narcan is distributed. A three-person team — a law enforcement officer, a paramedic and a clinician from Bridgeway — will make the initial contact.
"Regardless of where you are in Okaloosa County, you'll have a knock on your door from a three-person team. … We'll then offer you any drug treatment program available readily in Okaloosa County," Bage explained.
"The important aspect of this program is the in-person contact within this critical first 72 hours after overdose," Larry C. McFarland, chief clinical officer at Bridgeway, said via email.
Bage credited key partners, including Deputy County Administrator Sheila Fitzgerald, Sheriff Eric Aden and Emily Pickens from the Florida Department of Health in Okaloosa, for the program's success.
Between July 2024 and June 2025, POST completed 202 visits, resulting in 114 client contacts. Of those, 49 people entered into treatment.
"The POST team also made contact with 108 friends and family members of the overdose person of which eight entered into treatment," McFarland added.
Digging deeper into the 49 who entered treatment, 27 enrolled in behavioral health programs, nine chose faith-based recovery programs and 13 inmates enrolled in medication-assisted treatment (MAT) through the county jail.
"That's what we're doing with POST, not just saving lives, but saving futures," said Bage.
Bage said the age range of people served was 18 to 55. A majority work in the service or labor industry.
During the presentation, Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel wondered why Okaloosa had such a high rate of drug-related deaths. But Bage said it's not a new problem.
"There's a history of drug usage ingrained in the county, (an) underculture of drug use," he said. "What's aggravated that is the introduction of fentanyl."
While state and federal governments worked to stop the prescription drug epidemic in the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was nothing done for the addiction, Bage added.
"We solved a symptom but not the problem. So everybody then went to illicit drugs," said Bage. They went to heroin, they went to street-level drugs. Fentanyl then was mixed in. The perform storm."
Beth Smith, health officer with the Florida Department of Health in Okaloosa, added the problem can exist anywhere.
"We're not immune regardless of what our community is," she said. "It impacts people of all aspects in life. We're never immune to that."
The good news is that Okaloosa is no longer in the top seven counties, Bage said. In fact, statewide, there has been a decrease in opioid-related deaths according to the most recent data.
The POST program was funded through the Coordinated Opioid Recovery Network (CORE) created through the Florida opioid settlement. McFarland said there are some ways the work can continue even when the funds run out.
"It may be possible for the POST team to be sustained with volunteers from the agencies involved," he said. "The detox unit is researching other funding sources to maintain the 24-hour availability to include on-site MAT initiation seven days per week."
POST continues with community education at local events, and "pop-ups" throughout the county where agencies have identified hot spots, McFarland added.
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