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Interventionist in Tallahassee, Florida
Intervention help in Tallahassee, with Florida’s law read correctly.
The state capital has two large universities, a regional crisis system that reaches deep into the Big Bend, and a county court process that changed in 2024. We help families use all of it well, and know when a prepared conversation will do more.
Tallahassee families tend to arrive with a lot of information and not much clarity. Someone has already read about the Marchman Act, a friend has suggested a Baker Act, a program has offered a free assessment. What is missing is a plan that fits this person.
We supply that plan. G3 is an independent intervention and treatment navigation practice based in Austin, Texas. We start preparing your family by phone and video the day you call, Matt Gibson travels to Tallahassee to lead the intervention, and no treatment provider pays us for anything.
Who calls us about Tallahassee
Parents of Florida State and FAMU students. Spouses of state employees whose drinking is surfacing at work. Families in Gadsden, Wakulla or Jefferson County who look to Tallahassee for hospitals and courts. Adult children worried about a parent alone in a house off Thomasville Road. The details differ; the need for a steady, independent guide does not.
What we offer in the capital
Preparation, the meeting, and the road after.
Addiction intervention
A carefully staged family conversation with one clear offer on the table and a confirmed admission behind it, so agreement does not have time to fade.
Explore →02Mental health intervention
For bipolar mania, psychosis, schizophrenia and suicidal depression, especially when your loved one does not believe anything is wrong.
Explore →03Family consulting
When the right next step is not an intervention yet, we coach the family on boundaries, communication and timing until it is.
Explore →The Leon County clerk’s page predates the 2024 law
Use the clerk’s page for where and when. Use the statute for who and how long.
The Leon County Clerk’s Mental Health and Substance Abuse page is helpful on logistics. Petitions go to the County Courthouse at 301 South Monroe Street, Suite 100, attention Probate, phone (850) 606-4180, open 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM weekdays. The clerk asks petitioners to arrive by 3:30 p.m. so paperwork can be processed, and to bring photo identification and a specific address or location for the person.
On the law itself, though, that page still describes the Marchman Act as it stood before Florida’s 2024 overhaul (HB 7021). It says any three adults with personal knowledge may petition and that a treatment order lasts no more than 60 days. The current statutes say otherwise. Under s. 397.68112, a spouse, guardian, relative, service provider, or one adult with direct personal knowledge of the impairment and its treatment history may file. Under s. 397.697, involuntary treatment may be ordered for up to 90 days, and the provider may seek an extension before it ends (s. 397.6975). The separate assessment petition the page describes was folded into one consolidated process in 2024.
Some things are unchanged and worth knowing. The court sets a hearing within 10 court working days of filing (s. 397.68151), the clerk may not charge a filing fee (s. 397.681), and in a genuine emergency a judge may order the person taken to a licensed provider for up to 72 hours without waiting for a hearing (s. 397.6818). Our full Marchman Act guide is written from the current text.
For a psychiatric crisis, the Baker Act governs. Anyone with personal knowledge of the person’s behavior can give sworn testimony to ask a judge for an ex parte order for involuntary examination; the Leon clerk publishes the petition form. Under s. 394.463, law enforcement and certain licensed clinicians can also start an examination, which may last up to 72 hours from arrival at a receiving facility. The clerk names Apalachee Center for Human Services, 2634 Capital Circle N.E., as the receiving facility for both Acts.
What happens after the 72 hours is decided by professionals. Only a facility administrator or a treating provider may petition for involuntary inpatient placement or outpatient services under s. 394.467, with orders of up to 6 months. Families who know this in advance stop pinning their hopes on the hold and start planning for the day of release. Our crisis and legal guide lays out the choices side by side, and our Florida mental health intervention page shows how we use them.
Baker Act examinations in Leon County
If it cannot wait
Call 911 for any immediate danger.
Overdose, a suicide attempt or threat, violence: these need emergency responders, not an interventionist. Call 911. When the crisis is emotional or substance related and you need someone on the line now, call or text 988. Then, when things are steady, call us.
Crisis resources for Tallahassee and the Big Bend
The state funds behavioral health care in this region through NWF Health Network, the DCF managing entity for the 18 counties of the First, Second and Fourteenth Judicial Circuits plus Madison and Taylor, as the network describes itself; DCF lists it as Northwest Florida Health Network at (850) 410-1020 in its managing entity contacts. In Leon County, DCF’s county directory names Apalachee Center as the Mobile Response Team provider, at 800-342-0774, and also lists its Florida Assertive Community Treatment team in Tallahassee for adults with serious mental illness. NWF Health Network describes these teams as a 24/7 on-call crisis service.
For students, Florida State’s Counseling and Psychological Services lists its crisis line as (850) 644-TALK (8255) with 24-hour phone support. Florida A&M’s Office of Counseling Services, (850) 599-3145, takes walk-ins for urgent concerns and points students to BetterMynd at (844) 287-6963 after hours. If a student is the one in trouble, remember that a court petition follows the person: one filed for a student who lives in Tallahassee belongs in Leon County, even if the family home is in Orlando.
Sorting treatment options without a sales pitch
Leon County’s drug poisoning death rate is among the lower ones in Florida: 32 deaths in 2024, an age-adjusted 11.6 per 100,000, compared with 21.3 for the state, per FLHealthCHARTS. That figure tracks deaths, not suffering. Chronic drinking and untreated psychiatric illness never show up in it at all, and they wear a family down just as surely.
Tallahassee families also face a smaller local treatment market than South Florida, which means a good match may be out of town. We confirm any program’s license on DCF’s substance use provider search and any psychiatric facility on AHCA’s facility locator. For sober living, we look for certification through FARR under s. 397.487. Florida’s s. 817.505 makes it a felony to pay or accept anything of value for patient referrals, which is one reason we refuse every form of it. Read more about independent treatment navigation.
TLH, I-10, and the time zone line
Tallahassee International Airport (TLH) is the usual arrival point, and I-10 links the city west to the Panhandle and east toward Jacksonville. One detail trips families up: Tallahassee is on Eastern time, but federal rules at 49 CFR 71.5 draw the Central time boundary along the Apalachicola River and the west line of Gulf County, so Panama City and Pensacola run an hour behind. When admissions, flights and court hours cross that line, we write every time with its zone.
Our guide to interstate intervention logistics explains how we handle longer trips, and sober transport provides a trained escort door to door. We also work with families in Panama City and Gainesville, and across Florida.
Tallahassee questions
Questions Leon County families bring to us.
The Leon County clerk’s website says three adults must sign a Marchman petition. Is that right?
How long can a Marchman treatment order last in Tallahassee?
Where do we go to file in Leon County, and when?
Our child is at FSU or FAMU. Do we file at home or in Tallahassee?
Who sends a mobile crisis team in Leon County?
Do you have a Tallahassee office?
Nearby help
More for the Big Bend and beyond
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.