New Florida Program Seeks to Help Mentally Ill Transition from Institutions to Communities

A new program precipitated by a 1999 Supreme Court ruling will help as many as 100 Floridians with long histories of mental illness live outside psychiatric wards, the Tallahassee Democrat reports. Supported by $1 million in state funding, the Florida Assertive Community Treatment program will help people with mental illness rent apartments, apply for government benefits and find jobs. Eligible patients, who have "severe and persistent mental illnesses," will be visited twice per day by social workers "to make sure" they are taking "powerful medications that keep them stable." Each patient will have access to team members, including a psychiatrist, three registered nurses and more than 12 mental health workers, 24 hours per day. Although the program, which is modeled after a similar program in Wisconsin and will be administered by the Apalachee Center for Human Services, comes from "a nationwide movement" that prefers mental patients to live "normal lives in normal neighborhoods," it was "cemented" by a Supreme Court ruling, the Democrat reports. In 1999, the court ruled that "undue institutionalization qualifies as discrimination" and that "states should allow mentally ill patients who can live in less restrictive settings to do so." According to the Democrat, the program will cost $10,000 per year per patient -- a savings of $97,000 over the typical $107,000 annual per patient cost of institutionalization (Sevigny, Tallahassee Democrat, 8/7). For further information on state health policy in Florida, visit State Health Facts Online.