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Interventionist in Ocala, Florida
An Ocala interventionist for families facing addiction or mental illness.
Marion County is spread out, and help can feel just as scattered. We gather your family around one clear plan, guide the conversation, and make sure treatment is waiting when your loved one is ready.
In and around Ocala, a family’s nearest neighbor may be a pasture away, and the person drinking or using can stay out of sight far longer than they could in a city. By the time families call, they have usually been carrying this alone for years.
G3 Recovery is a family intervention and treatment navigation practice based in Austin, Texas. Matt Gibson, a Certified Interventionist (CAI), coaches your family remotely, then travels to Marion County for the intervention itself. Hannah Gibson keeps every piece of the case moving through admission. Our only paycheck comes from you.
Is this your family?
Parents raising grandchildren because their daughter cannot. A husband whose drinking has cost him his license, so he now drives without it. An adult son who has grown suspicious and withdrawn and will not see a doctor. If you recognize one of these, you are exactly who we work with.
Why Marion County families should not wait
Marion carries one of the heaviest overdose burdens in Florida. On the Department of Health’s FLHealthCHARTS, the county recorded 148 drug poisoning deaths among residents in 2024, an age-adjusted rate of 40.1 per 100,000. That is nearly twice the statewide rate of 21.3. In 2023 the toll was 210 deaths, a rate of 57.5.
The improvement from one year to the next is real, and the gap with the rest of the state is just as real. For a family weighing whether to act now or give it one more month, those numbers argue for now. If your loved one uses opioids or anything that could be laced with fentanyl, keep naloxone within reach while we plan.
How we help
Three ways we work with Ocala families.
Family intervention
Every participant coached, every letter rehearsed, a program confirmed beforehand. The aim is a calm conversation with one clear offer.
Explore →02Mental health intervention
For psychosis, bipolar mania, severe depression and suicidal risk, including the loved one who believes nothing is wrong.
Explore →03Treatment navigation
Independent, fee-free to programs, and based on fit. We compare options in Central Florida and beyond, then stay with you through admission.
Explore →Filing a Marchman petition in Marion County
The courthouse is on NW 1st Avenue. The petition is free to file.
Marion belongs to Florida’s Fifth Judicial Circuit, alongside Citrus, Hernando, Lake and Sumter counties (s. 26.021). The Marion County Clerk of Court accepts Marchman Act petitions through its Civil Courts department, at 110 NW 1st Avenue in Ocala, (352) 671-5604, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. State law sends the petition to the county where your loved one is located and forbids a filing fee (s. 397.681).
Under s. 397.68112, the petitioner for an adult may be a spouse, guardian, relative, service provider, or one adult with direct personal knowledge of the substance use and its treatment history. The legal test in s. 397.675 is loss of self-control over substances, plus either judgment too impaired to recognize the need for care or a genuine risk of harm. A hearing follows within 10 court working days, and an order may require up to 90 days of treatment (s. 397.697).
Our Marchman Act guide for Florida families covers what to write in the petition and what happens if your loved one refuses to appear.
If the trouble is psychiatric, the Baker Act applies instead. A law enforcement officer, a qualified professional’s certificate, or an ex parte order from a judge can start an involuntary examination under s. 394.463, and the examination lasts up to 72 hours. The family’s role then narrows: only the receiving facility or a treating provider may petition for involuntary inpatient placement or outpatient services under s. 394.467.
Many families in this situation are dealing with someone who flatly denies being ill. Our guide to talking to someone in denial explains why arguing about the diagnosis rarely works and what tends to work better.
When the crisis is in the mind
Emergencies first
If a life is in danger, call 911 now.
Suspected overdose, suicidal threats or violence call for 911, not an intervention. For a crisis that is serious but not life threatening, call or text 988. When the immediate danger has passed, call us to plan what comes next.
Crisis care in Ocala and Marion County
SMA Healthcare provides Marion County’s public crisis services. It describes its adult Crisis Stabilization Unit and detox as a short-term residential facility for people in a mental health or substance use crisis, runs a Children’s Crisis Stabilization Unit offering 24-hour emergency screening for ages 5 to 18, and fields a Mobile Response Team that serves children, teens and adults around the clock. Its 24/7 helpline is (800) 539-4228. Callers to 988 reach the 988 Florida Lifeline.
DCF’s managing entity contact list places Marion under Lutheran Services Florida (LSF Health Systems), which manages state funded behavioral health care for a long list of north and central Florida counties, Volusia and Alachua among them. Crisis care steadies a person for days. An intervention is how a family turns those days into a real start on treatment.
Choosing a program you can trust
A rural county can mean fewer local programs and more pressure from far-off ones advertising online. Florida’s answer to referral-for-cash schemes is the Patient Brokering Act, which reaches anyone, provider or not, who trades referrals for money or favors. Our answer is to take no money from programs at all.
We verify licenses through the DCF substance use licensing search and AHCA’s FloridaHealthFinder for psychiatric facilities. For sober living, we look for certification through the Florida Association of Recovery Residences, since s. 397.4873 keeps licensed providers from referring to uncertified homes. Then come the human questions: who leads the clinical team, how is a relapse handled, and what is the discharge plan. That is treatment navigation.
On the I-75 corridor
For Marion County, Matt usually flies into Gainesville Regional (GNV) to the north or Orlando International (MCO) to the southeast and drives in. I-75 is the spine of most Marion County plans, and Florida’s Turnpike joins it just to the south in Sumter County, which makes programs in Central Florida, Tampa Bay or north toward Gainesville reachable by car in a single trip.
For families outside Ocala proper, we plan the location of the intervention with care: somewhere private, familiar and calm. If your loved one will travel to treatment, our sober transport escorts can go with them, and our guide to interstate intervention logistics explains how out-of-state admissions come together.
Questions from Marion County families
What Ocala families ask us first.
Where do we file a Marchman Act petition in Ocala?
Which court hears Marchman cases for Marion County?
Who provides crisis care in Marion County?
How does Matt get to Ocala?
Is G3 an Ocala company?
Do treatment programs pay you for sending patients?
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.