Alan Davidson
Live Tampa Bay’s New Stakeholder Coalition Chair
Celebrating multiple new leadership roles this month is Alan Davidson, now the President and CEO of Central Florida Behavioral Health Network (CFBHN). CFBHN partners with community service organizations to provide a full array of publicly funded mental health and substance abuse services in the Tampa Bay Region and beyond. Alan is also the recently-elected Chair of the Stakeholders Coalition of Live Tampa Bay.
His mantra? Recovery Oriented Systems of Care. As someone taking part in decision-making conversations at all levels of government in Florida, Davidson says his goal is the same with everyone from state elected leaders to community recovery associations: To build leaders’ commitment to a recovery mindset – state and local systems that provide “wraparound” care for people working on recovery.
In an interview with Live Tampa Bay, he explained that this means making sure that people who make it through any stage of recovery have the help and resources they need to get through to the next phase of their healing.
When systems are recovery oriented, a person hits the crisis stabilization unit, the emergency department, the detox and then gets moved to a lower level of care and then, in addition to getting the medication they need, they get wrap-around (services) from a peer perspective that comes…and helps them through that recovery.
Davidson lauded Live Tampa Bay’s advocacy for systemic change in Florida, beginning with the goal of ending the epidemic of opioid overdose deaths. Winning passage of the bill legalizing fentanyl test strips last year represented a major win for the state.
Asked how can people make more of a difference, Davidson replied, “Live Tampa Bay is a great option. Educating. Advocating. I can’t think of a better way.”
