A CRUCIAL NEED IN ORANGE COUNTY FOR MENTAL-HEALTH BEDS

Orange County Chairman Rich Crotty and the Board of County
Commissioners proclaimed the month of September as National Alcohol
and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. This proclamation is special to
note considering Orange County's severe lack of state funding for
acute mental-health-crisis beds.

The Department of Children & Families has established a goal of 10
acute-crisis beds for every 100,000 citizens. Orange County has more
than 900,000 citizens, which, according to the department's goal,
would require 90 crisis beds available. However, as of today, Orange
County has only 50 adult and children's acute-crisis beds.

Currently, statewide appropriations approved by the Florida
Legislature do not come close to meeting this goal. Unfortunately,
what resources have been appropriated for adult mental-health services
haven't been distributed equitably. In fact, Orange County receives $2
million less than its fair share of appropriated resources, making
District 7 -- which includes Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Brevard
counties -- rank last in the state for funding.

In order to make up for this shortage, Orange County requested $3
million from the state for an additional 20 acute mental-health-crisis
beds during this past regular legislative session. This request
however, went again unnoticed by state legislators.

After the session, the Orange County Central Receiving Center (CRC),
which was opened in April, conducted "A Day in the Life" study to
accurately understand the real volume of consumers receiving acute
mental-health and substance-abuse treatment, and those waiting to
access treatment. This study acknowledged that an average of 34
patients were waiting for a crisis bed at the CRC and area emergency
rooms. On a recent weekend, there were 23 people waiting at the CRC
for a bed.

Orange County needs and deserves our fair share of state funding. The
Board of County Commissioners has done everything possible to help,
and recently provided funding for step-down beds in the community.
These beds will allow patients to move out of crisis beds and into
treatment beds as soon as possible. Even with this effort, Orange
County still needs at least 32 beds to serve our growing population.
Orange County's state-tax contribution to the state is significant and
second only to Broward County. The citizens of Orange County suffering
from mental-health and substance-abuse addictions deserve a fair
share of the state's resources.

This is a priority item for Orange County, and we need our community
to request action from our state legislators.