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Interventionist in Fort Myers, Florida
Fort Myers families, a steady plan for a loved one who will not accept help.
Drug and alcohol intervention, and careful help when the crisis is psychiatric, for families in Fort Myers, Cape Coral and across Lee County. We prepare everyone, guide the conversation, and line up treatment before the day arrives.
Most families in Lee County do not call an interventionist first. They call the hospital, then a hotline, then a program that promises a bed tonight. We are usually the call after those, when the family realizes nobody has a plan for the person who keeps saying no.
That plan is our work. G3 is based in Austin, Texas, and Matt Gibson travels to Fort Myers for the intervention. Preparation starts by phone and video the same day, and we are paid only by you.
Lee is one county in a five-county circuit
Florida’s Twentieth Judicial Circuit covers Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades. The circuit is shared, but each county keeps its own clerk, so a loved one in Naples or Punta Gorda is a different filing from one in Fort Myers or Lehigh Acres.
Lee County, by the numbers that matter to a family
The Florida Department of Health counted 171 drug poisoning deaths among Lee County residents in 2024, an age-adjusted rate of 23.2 per 100,000 (FLHealthCHARTS). That was down from 234 deaths and a rate of 31.9 the year before, and it still sits above the statewide 2024 rate of 21.3. Put plainly, the trend is better and the county is still above average.
Those figures count deaths where drugs were the underlying cause, by county of residence. They do not count the alcohol-related hospital admissions, the psychiatric holds, or the families quietly paying someone’s rent so they will not end up on the street. That larger picture is what we hear on the phone. When the substance is fentanyl, alcohol or benzodiazepines, withdrawal itself can be dangerous, so our guide to what families should know about detox is worth reading before any conversation about treatment.
How we help in Fort Myers
From the first call to the first week.
Family intervention
A planned, coached conversation about drugs or alcohol, with every participant rehearsed and a program confirmed before anyone walks in.
Explore →02Psychiatric crisis support
For mania, psychosis, or a depression that frightens you, paced around safety and the reality that your loved one may not believe they are ill.
Explore →03Treatment navigation
Programs in Lee County, elsewhere in Florida, or across the country, vetted on clinical fit and cost, with no referral money behind any suggestion.
Explore →What the weeks before an intervention look like
Hannah Gibson, our co-founder and case manager, takes the first long call. She wants the timeline: when the drinking or using started, what has been tried, who has already been pushed away, and whether there are medical or legal pressures we need to plan around. Matt Gibson, a Certified Interventionist (CAI), then recommends an approach. Some families need a fully structured intervention. Others do better with an invitational model where your loved one is told about the meeting in advance.
Next comes coaching. Every person who will be in the room writes a short, honest letter, and we work through it by video until it says what matters without reopening old fights. In parallel we secure a program, verify benefits, and arrange travel so a yes in a living room in Cape Coral becomes an admission the same day. Matt and Hannah are both in long-term recovery, and that shapes how they talk to the person at the center of it all: directly, without contempt, as someone who can get well.
The fee is flat and given in writing before you commit. Travel is billed at actual cost and sober transport is quoted on its own.
Florida law, applied to a Lee County case
File where your loved one is, not where the family lives.
Addiction: the Marchman Act. A petition for involuntary treatment services is filed with the clerk of court in the county where the person is located, and Florida law forbids a filing fee (s. 397.681). For an adult, the petitioner can be a spouse, guardian, relative, service provider, or one adult with direct personal knowledge of the substance problem and its treatment history (s. 397.68112). The person must meet s. 397.675: loss of self-control over substance use, plus impaired judgment about needing care or a real risk of harm. The court schedules a hearing within 10 court working days (s. 397.68151) and may order up to 90 days of treatment.
Mental illness: the Baker Act. An involuntary examination of up to 72 hours can follow a police officer’s decision, a qualified professional’s certificate, or a judge’s ex parte order on sworn testimony (s. 394.463). Any longer order, inpatient or outpatient, can only be requested by the facility or a treating provider and lasts up to six months (s. 394.467).
Our Florida Marchman Act guide walks through each step. We will also tell you honestly when a court route is likely to help and when it is more likely to harden someone against treatment.
Emergency first
If a life is at risk, call 911.
Overdose, suicidal statements, or violence are emergencies. Call 911, and call or text 988 for any mental health or substance use crisis. We plan interventions for the dangerous situations that are not yet emergencies, and we will help you tell the difference.
Who to call in Lee County during a crisis
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office community resources guide lists Crisis Prevention & Empowerment at (844) 395-4432, available 24/7 for crisis intervention, and SalusCare at (239) 275-4242, 10140 Deer Run Farms Rd, Fort Myers, serving adults and children with mental health or substance use problems. SalusCare’s own site lists that same number as its crisis and emergency line. For information and referral, United Way 211 serves Lee, Hendry and Glades counties 24 hours a day, 365 days a year: dial 2-1-1, or 239.433.3900 if 2-1-1 does not connect from your mobile phone.
Florida’s 988 line connects to Florida-based counselors who can bring in a Mobile Response Team (DCF). State-funded behavioral health care in Lee is coordinated by Central Florida Behavioral Health Network, the DCF managing entity for Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades among its fourteen counties.
Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) is where Matt, and most out-of-state relatives, arrive. When the right program is in another state, we book the outbound trip from RSW around your loved one’s readiness, and one of our sober transport escorts travels with them the whole way. The practical details, from ID to medication to connecting flights, are in our guide to interstate intervention logistics.
I-75 is the road spine of the region, north toward Charlotte County and Sarasota and south toward Collier and Naples. If your loved one lives in Naples, the case belongs to the Collier clerk even though the circuit is the same; our Naples page covers that county, and our Sarasota page covers the next metro north.
Before we recommend any program we check it in the DCF substance use licensing search or AHCA’s FloridaHealthFinder, look for FARR certification on any sober home, and remember that Florida’s Patient Brokering Act exists because paid referrals were common enough to need a felony statute.
RSW, I-75 and vetting programs
Questions from Lee County families
What Fort Myers families ask us.
Where is a Marchman Act case filed for someone in Fort Myers?
Our brother lives in Naples. Is that the same process?
What crisis lines does Lee County publish?
How serious is the overdose problem in Lee County?
Do you have staff in Fort Myers?
What does it cost?
Nearby
More help in Southwest Florida
The next step is a conversation
You do not have to figure this out alone.
One confidential call with G3 begins it. No pressure, no judgment, just a path forward.