DON'T STOP DRUGS FOR THE MENTALLY ILL

In one month, the effects of the North Broward Hospital District's
decision to no longer provide psychotropic drugs to the indigent
disabled will become apparent. The drugs will not be distributed after
March 1.

By March 15, residents who cannot afford medications to treat
psychosis, depression or mania will have been without the chemical
compounds that allow their brains to function ''normally'' for two
weeks. By then, the level of medication in their bloodstreams will be
depleted.

About 1,000 residents will have no options to get life-sustaining
medications. Their behavior and thoughts then will be out of their
control. Thousands more will be affected: families, friends,
neighbors, passers-by, police and hospital personnel, the criminal
justice system and the Department of Children and Families are among
them.

Will Trower, district CEO, received a 48-percent raise. It adds up to
about the same amount of money that will be saved by cutting out the
psychiatric medications.

Is there a correlation? I have no idea. However, when these people
become destabilized without medication, the cost to the district will
be much higher in terms of hospitalizations and time spent in the
criminal-justice system. This must be resolved now.

Dr. Sandra Lange

Broward County