Community Budget Issue Requests - Tracking Id #924
Focused Outreach Intervention Program
Requester:		Barbara E. Daire, President/CEO			Organization:		Suncoast Center for Community Mental Health
Project Title:		Focused Outreach Intervention Program			Date Submitted		1/14/2003 1:16:12 PM
Sponsors:		Farkas
Statewide Interest:
Acdcording to the Florida Council for Behavioral Healthcare, "Up to 23% of Florida's jail inmates have a serious mental illness." The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) reports, "Florida local jails have become the largest public psychiactric hospitals, housing over 10,000 offenders with mental illness, many of whom are low-level offenders." Florida Partners in Crisis, an organization that is committed to promoting access to quality services, treatment, and support for children and adults who face challenges of mental illness and/or substance abuse, reports that the lack of access to treament is a direct result of "unnecessary and costly hospitalization, incarceration, suicide and homelessness." The Focused Outreach and Intervention Program (Focused Outreach) is a collaborative effort by three local mental health agencies that provides timely and comprehensive mental health services to adults who have a history of mental illness and have been recently released from jail or prison, and have difficulty engaging in treatment. The lead agency for the collaboration is the Suncoast Center for Community Mental Health, Inc. The partners are: Directions for Mental Health, Inc. and Personal Enrichment through Mental Health Services, Inc. (PEMHS). In designing a component to the exisiting program that would provide a type of Front-End Diversion, Focused Outreach addresses the need to prevent mentally ill offenders who committed a misdemeanor ( as a result of their mental illness) from going to jail in the first place. By creating a receiving center, community-based partnerships between local law enforcement and community-based mental health agencies is established. Among the benefits, the community-based services will help meet the Governor's stated priorities of achieving "a state with safe cities and towns, where children can grow up without fear, where young people can resist the lure of crime and drugs, and where all of us can pursue our dreams. . ." and reducing the higher costs to tax payers which will result when these services are not provided. Documented need is listed in 20a.
Recipient:		Suncoast Center for Community Mental Health			Contact:		Barbara E. Daire
		4024 Central Avenue			Contact Phone:		(727) 327-7656
		St. Petersburg 33711
Counties:		Pinellas
Gov't Entity:			Private Organization (Profit/Not for Profit):					Yes
Project Description:
Focused Outreach targets individuals in the Criminal Justice System who are diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness and links with them prior to discharge from jail or other facility to accomplish a two-fold goal; to increase the likelihood that they will follow up with community-based services upon their release, and to decrease the likelihood that they will be re-incarcerated in the future. Focused Outreach is a program specifically designed to provide less expensive, yet comprehensive, community-based services. This proposal supports and enhances the existing program, with the inclusion/expansion of a receiving center, operated by local community mental health agencies. Services are as follows: immediate evaluation and assessment to determine level of care (jail, hospital, community-based program [24 hours a day, 7 days a week]; psychosocial assessment; individual and family therapy; psychiactric evaluation; medication therapy assistance; locating and maintaining permanent housing; assistance in meeting the requirements of probation or parole; advocacy in court proceedings; care coordination; linking with community-based and traditional mental health services; and group therapy (targets substance abuse, mental illness and criminal thinking). All treatment is provided through a team approach. Additionally, outreach is conducted in many locations throughout the county including the county jail, hospitals, homeless shelters, and halfway houses. This service allows Suncoast Center to provide education and assistance to community agencies and professional staff who come into contact with mentally ill adults. The relationships that the Focused Outreach and Intervention Program has established with the justice system repeatedly reinforces the need for Front-End Diversion. Law enforcement (Pinellas County Public Defenders Office and Pinellas County Misdemeanor Judges) has been asking Suncoast Center to create this component to the Focused Outreach program. Front-End Diversion determmines the appropriate placement for mentally ill offenders of misdemeanor charges. To effectively implement this component of the Focused Outreach program, a receiving center close to the county jail facility is needed. The 24-hour receiving center will be the facility where law enforcement officers deliver mentally ill offenders for assistance and evaluation. With this assessment and evaluation, it is then determined whether treatment or incarceration is appropriate for the individual.
Is this a water project as described in Chapter 2002-291, Laws of Florida?								No
Measurable Outcome Anticipated:
Focused Outreach services help to reduce recidivism to jails by engaging clients in treatment that promotes their stability and ability to follow up with criminal justice requirements, and allows them to achieve optimal functioning in the community. The program provides an alternative to incarceration for individuals who can be better served through the mental health system and benefits the public by providing a resource to community law enforcement agencies that facilitates communication and partnership in cases involving mentally ill adults. The effectiveness measures of the program include the standard measures for mental health programs used throughout the state. The intent of the project is to reduce the use of inappropriate and expensive public resources by getting people the treatment they need. 60% of cases formally opened for individuals who kept at least three (3) appointments with Focused Outreach were successfully transferred to traditional mental health services. Of the cases served by the Suncoast Center in Fiscal 2001-2002, 21 were successfully linked with Assertive Resource Management Service (ARMS) or targeted case mangement services. To quote the intent of the Florida Partners in Crisis initiative for 2002, "Benefits to the state will include reduced recidivism; decreased jail, detention admissions, and emergency room visits related to mental illness and substance abuse; decreased waiting time for court-ordered treatment and placement; decreased law enforcement transportation and processing time for mentally ill and substance abuse defendents.
Amount requested from the State for this project this year:						$1,000,000
Identify item(s) in the FY 2003-04 Appropriations Bill to be reduced:
Specific Appropriation #:			845
Specific Appropriation Title:			Inmate Health Services
Amount to be reduced:			$1,000,000
Total cost of the project:			$1,587,747
Request has been made to fund:				Operations
What type of match exists for this project?					Local, Private
	Cash Amount		$1,570,077			In-kind Amount		$17,670
Was this project previously funded by the state?							Yes
	Fiscal Year:		2002-2003		Amount:		$387,500
Is future-year funding likely to be requested?							Yes
	Amount:		$1,000,000		To Fund:		Operations
Was this project included in an Agency's Budget Request?							Yes
	Agency		Children And Families, Department Of
Was this project included in the Governor's Recommended Budget?							Unknown
Is there a documented need for this project?						Yes
	Documentation:		JAILS: Asylums of the New Millennium
Was this project request heard before a publicly noticed meeting of a body of elected officials (municipal, county, or state)?							Yes
	Hearing Body:			Pinellas County Delegation
	Hearing Meeting Date:			11/14/2002