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Editorial: Mental hospitals need more attention

 
Last spring, lawmakers boosted funding for mental health programs and added security measures at the state’s hospitals. But mentally ill patients are still living in dangerous conditions and more reforms are needed to ensure their safety.
Last spring, lawmakers boosted funding for mental health programs and added security measures at the state’s hospitals. But mentally ill patients are still living in dangerous conditions and more reforms are needed to ensure their safety.
Published Oct. 5, 2016

Florida's underfunded mental hospitals continue to be incubators of violence, making clear that recent reforms have not made up for years of budget cuts that allowed the mayhem to fester. Last spring, lawmakers boosted funding for mental health programs and added security measures at the state's hospitals. But mentally ill patients are still living in dangerous conditions and more reforms are needed to ensure their safety.

Stunning problems in Florida's mental hospitals were exposed in the 2015 series "Insane. Invisible. In danger," a joint project of the Tampa Bay Times and Sarasota Herald-Tribune. The series uncovered nearly 1,000 assaults or injuries in mental hospitals during a period in which $100 million was slashed from the state's mental health budget. That forced staffing cuts and created an environment where employees were forced to work double shifts and supervise more than a dozen violent and unstable patients alone.

THE FULL INVESTIGATION: After Florida cut $100 million from its mental hospitals, chaos quickly followed.

In response, lawmakers this year added $16 million to the mental hospitals' budgets, which pays for dozens of full-time workers, a pool of money for temporary employees, $2.4 million to contract with psychiatrists and other professional staff members, and $1.5 million for safety equipment such as security cameras and body alarms. Rep. Kathleen Peters, R-Treasure Island, helped lead the effort after visiting prisons and mental health facilities and talking to stakeholders. The additional money and staffing are positive first steps, but there is more to do.

As Times staff writer Leonora LaPeter Anton reported, violent incidents have continued to mount this year. Patients suffered broken bones in beatings by fellow patients and, even more commonly, at the hands of staff members. Workers were found to have punched and pushed patients. One patient was shoved into a wall while sitting in a wheelchair. At Florida State Hospital in April, a schizophrenic patient died after his roommate, who was bigger and known to be violent, stomped on his head repeatedly. The men lived in a unit for patients who are both mentally ill and intellectually disabled, where it's not uncommon for three or four patients to share a room. It's easy to see the potential danger in such arrangements.

The Department of Children and Families, which oversees the mental health system, has made only meager changes since the newspaper series brought the problems to light. DCF Secretary Mike Carroll is briefed weekly on all "significant events" at the state's mental hospitals, and he says a team of administrators is researching new ways to ensure patient safety. More pressing concerns remain unresolved. State mental health facilities still don't have to report most injuries and assaults. When a death is investigated, the DCF never has to release details unless the agency's own officials determine the death was a result of staff abuse or neglect. They rarely do. And throughout the system, staffing levels are still inadequate.

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For years, Florida has allowed abuse, injury and neglect to proliferate in its mental hospitals. Additional money and resources allocated this year should help make patients and staff safer, but this is not a problem that money alone will solve. Changes are needed at the DCF that bring more accountability and transparency. Lawmakers should keep the pressure on and recognize that the mentally ill in Florida are still in danger.