Articles & News

August 15, 2008

Florida ranks poorly in mental health spending

-- Susan Jenks, FLORIDA TODAY

In the 2007 report, "Transforming Florida's Mental Health System," a state mental health subcommittee chronicled a national heritage that has failed to establish a "comprehensive network" of community mental health services to reintegrate vulnerable individuals back into their communities."

In two centuries, the report said, "we have come full circle, and, today, our jails are once again psychiatric warehouses" for those with chronic, severe manifestations of mental illness.

Specific to Florida, the report said:

# About 125,000 people annually with mental illnesses requiring immediate treatment are arrested and booked into Florida jails, mostly for misdemeanor and low-level felony offenses.

# About 25 percent of the homeless population has a severe mental illness, and more than half have spent time in jail or prison.

# Individuals ordered into forensic commitment -- charged with a crime -- "are now the fastest-growing segment of the publicly funded mental health marketplace in Florida."

# Florida ranks 12th in the nation in spending for forensic mental health services, but 48th nationally in overall per-capita public mental health spending.

Carolann Duncan, Florida Department of Children and Families' program administrator for mental health and substance abuse in a four-county area including Brevard County, acknowledged that jails "have become our biggest mental health hospitals."

But she said the state is working hard to treat more individuals in a community setting.

In Orange County, for example, she said, the department opened a receiving center where individuals can be screened for appropriate care, while there are active training programs for police officers to sensitize them to mental health issues.

"We are making progress," Duncan said. "Our providers are very creative with the funding they have."