Her adult son, a University of Florida graduate, returned home in 2007 after several years on his own. His severe depression mounted. He stopped eating and drinking and retreated to his room.
After improving for a time, he had another flare-up in November and disappeared, deciding to sleep in the woods.
That's how Adam, 37, ended up spending six weeks in a short-term residential treatment program offered in Pinellas Park by a nonprofit called Personal Enrichment through Mental Health Services, or PEMHS.
"It was such a gift to me that he was getting medical attention, he was getting diagnosed, they had nurses on staff who were caring for him," said his mother, Dianne, 65, a Palm Harbor resident and former middle school teacher. "If it weren't for this facility, I don't know what would have happened to him."
Now, due to budget cuts from Tallahassee, people in Pinellas like Dianne and Adam, whose last names are being withheld because of the nature of Adam's illness, are without a safety net. On July 1, PEMHS ended its short-term residential program, the only option for such care in Pinellas for mentally ill indigent people and those without adequate insurance.
The program served as an alternative to state mental hospitals for those needing to be monitored and stabilized. It offered 12 beds, and served more than 50 clients last year. Without the program, advocates say, those in need will further burden area emergency rooms and jails.
"That is just catastrophic," said Judy Turnbaugh, president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Pinellas County. "We have so many people who are in jail now who should not be there. They are ill."
Turnbaugh's younger brother is schizophrenic. He's 59 and had his first episode at 17. Turnbaugh said her brother was helped during several critical points in his life by the program, which was in existence for 10 years.
Here's why the program was cut.
PEMHS offers a variety of mental health services. One vital role is providing crisis care to the thousands of Pinellas residents taken into custody each year under the state's Baker Act because they are a danger to themselves or others.
In 2007, the Legislature gave PEMHS $1-million to help support crisis care efforts. That amount dropped to $400,000 this year. The Legislature allocated no money for crisis care next year.
In order to keep serving the high number of Baker Act cases it gets, PEMHS had no choice but to end the residential treatment program and use that money, about $1-million a year, to keep crisis care services afloat, said executive director Tom Wedekind.
"We had to go where the highest demand was at this point," Wedekind said. "There is no question that demand (for mental health services) is far outreaching the revenues."
Turnbaugh agrees that Wedekind had to end the program, but predicts many will suffer.
"What is going to happen to these people who need some time to get back on their feet?" she asked.
It's unlikely they'll be as fortunate as Adam, who according to his mother is still fragile, but living in a group home, much improved and working part time.
"People who are in the poorest, most desperate situations are going to be affected by this closing," she said.
Will Van Sant can be reached at vansant@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4166.
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