ADMISSIONS FROZEN TO PROGRAM FOR MENTALLY ILL DRUG ABUSERS

Officials fear problems with lease at SFSH

The Florida Department of Children and Families' Broward district has
placed a temporary freeze on admissions into a program for mentally ill
substance abusers, leaving at least one man in jail as he awaits treatment.

Broward district officials said the action came as lease negotiations with
the Lock Towns Community Mental Health Center -- which oversees the program
based at South Florida State Hospital -- stretched on for six months.

Fearing Lock Towns might shut the program altogether, the department
decided not to admit any more people until the lease was signed.

"We did not want to have someone admitted to a program that might in a few
weeks not be there," said Pat Kramer, director of behavioral and
developmental care services.

Such caution, however, has kept one attorney's client in jail for the past
three weeks as case workers search for another program that can take him.

"It's certainly detrimental to him to just be sitting in jail," said
assistant public defender Barry Feingold of his client, who is mentally ill
and a cocaine user. "It's only a matter of time before he's going to . . .
learn, `I just can't trust the system.' "

Many of the trouble points were prompted by new arrangements at South
Florida State Hospital brought about by privatization, which meant
providers such as Lock Towns that leased space at the hospital in Pembroke
Pines would have more responsibility for building maintenance.

But the obstacles appear to have lifted. Agency officials and Lock Town
executives say they have resolved their differences.

"I have full confidence that within a couple of weeks that freeze will be
lifted," Kramer said.

Charles Barton, executive director of Lock Towns, agreed. "It's pretty much
to the point where it's been resolved," he said.

Beds at Lock Town's Sub Arts (Substance Abuse Adult Residential Treatment
System) program are always hard to come by because it is one of the few in
the area that offers simultaneous treatment for substance abuse and mental
illness, Barton said.

The program has space for 10 patients from the Department of Children and
Families' Broward district and space for 16 from Miami-Dade and Monroe
counties. While the department's officials for Miami-Dade and Monroe were
aware of the problems with the lease, officials there opted not to freeze
admissions from those counties.

The Broward district's decision to bar admissions placed financial concerns
above others, charged Howard Finkelstein, Broward's chief assistant public
defender and an advocate for the mentally ill.

"In essence they have violated the law in order to get the rent," said
Finkelstein. "The truth is that DCF is responsible for all mental health
treatment. By contracting away their responsibility, they do not contract
away their accountability."

Herald staff writer Shari Rudavsky can be reached by e-mail at
srudavsky@herald.com