Letter from the CEO

The data in this month’s newsletter reveals a sobering truth: adults 60 and older in Tampa Bay are now more likely to die from an overdose than those under 30. While overall overdose deaths have decreased, senior fatalities have climbed 24% over three years. This represents our mothers, fathers, and grandparents being left behind by conventional intervention strategies. 

At Live Tampa Bay, we transform systems and care to reduce suffering and deaths from addiction through six proven approaches, which we’re now applying to our groundbreaking Supporting Seniors initiative: 

Convening Leaders - We’re forming a cross-sector committee bringing together agencies serving those 60 and older—including Seniors in Service and AARP—with traditional mental health and substance use providers. This collaboration addresses the unique reality that seniors with substance use disorders are nearly three times more likely than the general population to have co-occurring mental health conditions. Please consider joining our Supporting Seniors Committee which will direct our work. 

Data-Driven Strategies - Thanks to Representative Koster and Senator Rouson’s leadership, we’ve secured legislative appropriation to examine why seniors are dying, develop targeted interventions, measure effectiveness, and refine approaches specifically for this population that conventional harm reduction strategies haven’t reached. 

Regional Research – By partnering with Central Florida HIDTA and FMHI/USF, we will not only better understand the complex factors that could be driving senior overdoses, but we will also track and share population data for the region. Ideally, we will begin to see the reverse of this deadly trend. 

Employer Engagement and Workplace Education – We will be promoting age-sensitive prevention strategies, including leveraging EAP programs and primary care visits, where older employees have trusted relationships with providers to normalize conversations about loss, identity, retirement, and aging. 

Awareness and Stigma Reduction – Thomas’s story in Into the Light depicts a journey into recovery later in life that challenges ageist assumptions and proves healing is not bound by age. By sharing examples like Thomas or even Betty Ford, who started treatment in her 60s, we can normalize recovery for seniors. Please share Thomas’ video and peruse our video library <hyperlink “peruse our video library” with the link to the video library on the website> for other videos of older adults in recovery. 

Advocacy for Advancing Best Practices – As with past pilot interventions, impactful interventions exist, however, the problem is that they are not readily funded. So, for this pilot and for previous piloted interventions, we will be engaging our leadership coalition members in advocating for better funding alignment and integration of solutions into community responses to the overdose crisis. 

With 30% of Tampa Bay’s 5.2 million residents over 60 years old, we have both tremendous responsibility and incredible opportunity to lead the nation in caring for older adults facing substance use challenges. Your partnership isn’t just welcomed—it’s essential to turn the tide on this crisis. 

Join Our Efforts - Contact me at jw@livetampabay.org with subject line “Supporting Seniors” to join monthly meetings focused on reducing overdose deaths among those 60 and older. Share stories like Thomas’. Contact Ashley Neal at an1@livetampabay.org for ways your HR Departments or Businesses can support turning the tide on senior — and all — overdoses. 

Together, we can ensure no senior suffers in silence, and that healing, hope, and transformation remain possible at every stage of life. 

In partnership and gratitude,