SARASOTA — The state’s approach to mental health treatment still needs considerable improvement, local lawmakers said Wednesday during a Sarasota Tiger Bay forum.
“I was very disappointed with what little we did” on mental health, state Sen. Nancy Detert told the crowd at Michael’s on East gathered for an update on the two-month legislative session that ended in March.
Detert said the mental health policy changes approved by the Legislature did not go far enough. And she pointed to a report in the Herald-Tribune Sunday about a Southwest Florida man with serious mental problems who has struggled to get adequate housing and support services in a community setting as an example of how the state is failing such individuals.
“They’re putting these people in terrible places,” Detert said of the state’s mental health service providers. “This is more than a black eye — it’s a disgrace.”
State Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, used similar language to describe the state’s overall funding levels for mental health programs.
“I think it’s absolutely embarrassing” that Florida ranks so low for mental health funding, Steube said.
Lawmakers also were asked about the problems with Florida’s mental hospitals documented in a recent joint investigation by the Herald-Tribune and Tampa Bay Times. The series won a Pulitzer Prize — journalism’s highest honor — this week. It documents rampant violence and other problems in the institutions after they endured severe budget cuts.
State Rep. Ray Pilon, R-Sarasota, said next year’s budget increases funding for mental hospitals but “we still need to take it up a notch.”
The lawmakers did note that a number of institutions in Sarasota and Manatee counties that deal with mentally ill individuals received additional or first-time funding this year.
An audience member also asked the panel about the movement in cities across Florida to decriminalize possession of small amount of marijuana.
State Rep. Julio Gonzalez, R-Venice, said he expects the Legislature to take similar steps in the near future.
“I would say the House and probably the Senate as well will go in that direction and eventually we will see some sort of statewide improvement in the reasonableness of the punishment,” Gonzalez said.
A question about whether the Legislature followed the will of the voters when it came to using money from a constitutional amendment focused on environmental conservation had lawmakers defending their approach to the issue.
“We did follow what we thought was the intent of the law,” said state Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton.
Correction: Sarasota County did not receive money in next year's state budget for a jail diversion program for mentally ill defendants. An earlier version of this story stated otherwise.
