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Interventionist in St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg intervention for addiction and mental illness, planned with your family.
Pinellas County carries one of the heaviest overdose burdens in Florida. If someone you love in St. Pete, Clearwater or Largo is drinking, using, or losing touch with reality, we help your family act with a plan instead of a panic.
Here is the number that frames everything on this page. In 2024, Pinellas County lost 367 residents to drug poisoning, an age-adjusted rate of 38.1 per 100,000. The statewide rate that year was 21.3 (Florida Department of Health, FLHealthCHARTS). Pinellas sits well above that average, even after a real decline from 441 deaths in 2023.
For a family in St. Petersburg that is not a statistic to admire. It is the reason not to wait for one more bad night before getting organized.
Who calls us from Pinellas
Parents of a young adult who moved back home and never really left the old crowd. Adult children watching a retired parent drink through the afternoons. Siblings in Ohio or New York trying to help a brother in Gulfport from a thousand miles away. Spouses who have covered for years and are finished covering.
From first call to admission
Four stages, and we stay for all of them.
The history call
Hannah Gibson, our co-founder and case manager, learns what is being used, what has been tried, and who your loved one still trusts. Nothing is scripted.
A plan and a bed
Matt Gibson, a Certified Interventionist (CAI), chooses the approach. We confirm a licensed program that fits the clinical need and the insurance, in Pinellas or well away from it.
Rehearsal by video
Each person drafts a short letter and practices it with us. We plan for denial, anger and bargaining so none of it surprises the room.
The day itself
Matt flies in, meets the family, and guides the conversation. When the answer is yes, travel to treatment is already arranged.
Why independence matters on this side of the bay
Search for help in St. Petersburg late at night and you will reach phone lines that sound neutral and are not. Some are paid, one way or another, to deliver patients. Florida takes that seriously: the Patient Brokering Act, s. 817.505, makes offering or receiving any kickback or split fee for a patient referral a felony, with penalties that rise with the number of patients involved. Our answer to that problem is simple. You are our only client. No facility, sober home or marketing company pays G3 for anything.
That frees us to say unpopular things. Sometimes the right program is twenty minutes from your house. Often, for someone whose using friends live in the next neighborhood, it is in another state. We check every option against the Department of Children and Families’ substance use licensing search and AHCA’s FloridaHealthFinder for mental health facilities, then talk to clinical staff rather than admissions. If a recovery residence is part of the plan, we look for FARR certification, because Florida bars licensed providers from referring to residences that are not certified (s. 397.4873). That whole process is what our treatment navigation covers.
Pinellas is not part of Hillsborough’s court system. Under s. 26.021 it forms the Sixth Judicial Circuit together with Pasco County, while Tampa’s Hillsborough County stands alone as the Thirteenth. For a family, that means a petition about someone living in St. Pete or Clearwater is filed with the Pinellas clerk, under Pinellas procedures, even if every relative lives in Tampa.
Inside Pinellas, the Sixth Circuit routes these cases by administrative order. Administrative Order 2025-035, effective December 8, 2025, assigns Marchman Act petitions for involuntary treatment services to Probate Specialty Section 1. Baker Act petitions are assigned by receiving facility: a section in Clearwater handles cases from facilities such as Morton Plant and Mease, Largo Medical Center’s Indian Rocks Road campus and Windmoor, and a section in St. Petersburg handles Bay Pines VA, St. Anthony’s, and the crisis provider listed as PEMHS, also known as Eleos Wellness & Support.
Knowing which facility your loved one was taken to tells you which courtroom will hear what comes next. We help families keep track of that while everything else is moving.
Pinellas courts, and why the county line matters
The Marchman Act and the Baker Act, in brief
For addiction: a Marchman petition asks the court to order assessment and treatment for someone who has lost self-control over substance use and either cannot see the need for help or is at real risk of harm (s. 397.675). A spouse, guardian, relative, service provider, or one adult with direct personal knowledge may file (s. 397.68112). It is filed in the county where the person is located, and the clerk may not charge a fee (s. 397.681). The hearing is set within 10 court working days, and in an emergency the court can order an ex parte assessment (s. 397.6818). A treatment order lasts up to 90 days.
For mental illness: the Baker Act allows an involuntary examination of up to 72 hours, started by police, by a professional’s certificate, or by a judge’s ex parte order on sworn testimony (s. 394.463). Only a facility administrator or treating provider can then petition for longer involuntary services, which may last up to six months (s. 394.467).
Neither law is a substitute for treatment someone actually engages in, and both carry costs for a family relationship. Our Florida Marchman Act guide and our page on mental health intervention in Florida go deeper on when each one makes sense.
Safety comes before strategy
An overdose is a 911 call, every time.
If someone is unresponsive, suicidal, or violent, call 911 now. For any mental health or substance use crisis, call or text 988. An intervention is for the serious situation that is not yet an emergency, and we will always tell you which one you are facing.
St. Petersburg and Pinellas crisis resources
Eleos Wellness & Support, the Pinellas crisis provider the court order also lists as PEMHS, publishes a 24 Hour Suicide Prevention Hotline at 727-791-3131 and runs a Mobile Crisis Response Team that provides on-site crisis support. The state’s 988 line, answered by Florida-based counselors, can also refer callers to a Mobile Response Team (DCF 988 page).
Inside the city, the St. Petersburg Police Department’s Community Assistance and Life Liaison (CALL) program, running since February 2021 with Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services, sends trained social work “CALL navigators” to certain non-violent 911 calls involving mental health or substance use, seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. For non-emergency services, Pinellas County’s Human Services points residents to First Contact, 211 Tampa Bay. Public behavioral health funding in the county flows through Central Florida Behavioral Health Network, DCF’s managing entity for Pinellas and Pasco.
PIE, TPA and the drive off the peninsula
Pinellas has its own airport, St. Pete-Clearwater International (PIE), and Tampa International (TPA) is across the bay. Which one we use depends on the flights and on your loved one: a smaller terminal can be easier for someone who agreed to treatment an hour ago and is wavering. Our sober transport escorts stay with them from the house to the intake desk, and our guide to interstate intervention logistics explains how we handle out-of-state admissions.
By road, I-275 is the spine: north over the bay to Tampa, south across the Skyway toward Manatee and Sarasota. Families driving in from elsewhere in Florida often reach the peninsula on I-75 and cut west. If treatment is in Hillsborough, see our Tampa page; if your family is spread down the coast, our Sarasota page covers the next county south. Because fentanyl drives so much of the loss here, our family guide to fentanyl and opioids is worth reading before the meeting, especially the parts on naloxone and detox.
Questions from Pinellas families
What St. Pete families want to know.
Which court hears a Marchman Act petition for someone in St. Petersburg?
Is Pinellas County really worse for overdoses than the rest of Florida?
What is the CALL program, and can it help our family?
Who should we call in Pinellas during a mental health crisis?
Our loved one is in St. Pete but the family is out of state. Can you still help?
How is G3 paid?
Nearby
More help around Pinellas
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.