Governor DeSantis Signs Legislation to Support Floridians with More Mental Health and Substance Abuse Resources

Today marks the start of National Recovery Month. Each September, we observe National Recovery Month to raise awareness, honor and make a difference in the lives of millions of Americans in or seeking recovery from mental and substance use disorders. This year’s theme is “Hope is Real. Recovery is Real.”

• Read President Biden’s Proclamation on National Recovery Month.
• Watch a special video message celebrating National Recovery Month from Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use, Miriam E. Delphin-Rittmon, Ph.D.

SAMHSA leadership and the Office of Recovery have developed themes during each week of Recovery Month. This first week, we will highlight the importance of supporting youth and young people in recovery, and the role that families and caregivers play in supporting those seeking to start their recovery journey. The transition back to full time studies and social activities can be overwhelming as a new school year begins. Maintaining social supports can help young people balance school and recovery. Check out our social media posts and share them across all your channels.

Here’s how you can help to support young people and their families during National Recovery Month:

• Check out SAMHSA’s National Recovery Month Toolkit, with key messages, social media shareables, and more, to help spread the word.
• Access resources for children and families.

Don’t forget to register for the 2023 Recovery Month Kickoff luncheon and join the Walk for Recovery on September 7.

New National Maternal Mental Health Hotline is Live!

By The National Maternal Mental Health Hotline

Pregnancy and a new baby can bring a range of emotions. Many women feel overwhelmed, sad, anxious, or exhausted at different times during their pregnancy or after having a baby.

These feelings can make it hard to care for yourself, care for your baby, or even do basic daily tasks. Sometimes these feelings go away on their own. But for some women, these emotions, if they last more than two weeks, are more serious and need treatment.

The National Maternal Mental Health Hotline provides 24/7, free, confidential support before, during, and after pregnancy. The Hotline offers callers:

• Phone or text access to professional counselors
• Real-time support and information
• Response within a few minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Resources
• Referrals to local and telehealth providers and support groups
• Culturally sensitive support
• Counselors who speak English and Spanish
• Interpreter services in 60 languages

 
(6/3/22)    READ MORE

September 28, 2021 Following up on its commitment to invest $825 million in Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is announcing the distribution of funds to 231 CMHCs across the country. CMHCs are community-based facilities or groups of facilities that provide prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation mental health services. This grant program will enable CMHCs to more effectively address the needs of individuals who have a serious emotional disturbance (SED) or serious mental illness (SMI), as well as individuals with SED or SMI and substance use disorders, referred to as a co-occurring disorder (COD). Florida grant recipients are:

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The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is distributing $3 billion in American Rescue Plan funding — the largest aggregate amount of funding to date for its mental health and substance use block grant programs.

The Community Mental Health Services Block Grant (MHBG) Program and Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant Program (SABG) will disperse $1.5 billion each to states and territories (with the latter also awarding money to a tribe). This follows the March announcement of supplemental funding of nearly $2.5 billion for these programs. SAMHSA, an operating division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has expedited federal funding to grantees to help communities grappling with mental health and substance use needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the nation’s mental and substance use disorder needs squarely in focus, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra is establishing a new Behavioral Health Coordinating Council (BHCC). The Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use and the Assistant Secretary for Health will serve as the co-chairs of this coordinating body, which is comprised of senior leadership from across the Department. The BHCC’s primary goal is to facilitate collaborative, innovative, transparent, equitable, and action-oriented approaches to addressing the HHS’ behavioral health agenda.

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Photo: Leaders from across the Tampa Bay area gathered at the Glazer Family Jewish Community Center in Tampa to announce a new mental health coalition.

 In the Tampa Bay area, one in six people suffers from depression.

One in twelve has a substance abuse disorder.

And there is only one mental health professional for every 700 people in Florida.

These are some of the statistics given Thursday to highlight the region’s need for more mental health coverage.

Leaders from organizations around the region gathered in Tampa to discuss a new initiative to address the mental health crisis. They announced that they’re forming a nonprofit called The West Central Florida Mental Wellness Coalition.

While BayCare is the company leading the coalition, CEO Tommy Inzina said it will take a community effort for it to succeed.

"We're not in the school systems every day, we're not dealing with everything law enforcement has to deal with, there's a lot the business community can do," said Inzina. "So we had this idea of creating a community coalition."

Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said police officers deal with the mental health crisis first-hand every single day.

“Last year we handled 19,283 mental health calls. Approximately 11% of our calls for service are mental health related. We weren't built for this. But we have to adapt because this is the environment,” he said.

The sheriff went on to say that deputies responded to over 2,000 suicide calls last year. He said one night he was dispatched to a suicidal person’s house and when he got there, the person just wanted someone to talk to.

Mental health is an issue in schools as well, according to Hillsborough County Assistant Superintendent Trayce Brown.

“It is nothing for us to think about taking our students to the nurse for a physical ailment, but often times we don’t do the same thing for mental wellness,” she said.

Brown said it’s important that schools feel equipped to get students the help they need, and that’s why the  school district is joining the coalition.

Barbara Daire, CEO of mental healthcare provider Suncoast Center, Inc. said the coalition is a dream come true for her.

“It’s just so wonderful to have everyone really look at this very important issue because we have a lot of unhappiness and a lot of unsettled people in our community,” Daire said. “This has been a lifelong dream of mine. I see that this group is going to be able to raise awareness and break the stigma in a big way across four counties (Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, and Polk). 

"We could potentially be the model for the rest of the country.”

The West Central Florida Mental Wellness Coalition has three primary goals. They want to start a public awareness campaign to get people educated on the scope of the mental health issue, they want to increase urgent care access for behavioral health, and they want to provide resources for patients seeking mental health help.

The coalition has already raised a little over $5 million toward their goal of $7.5 million that they need to cover operating costs for the first five years.

BayCare is matching any donations given to the coalition. So far, companies like Advent Health, Florida Blue, and Tampa General Hospital have donated.

Inzina said that the board for the nonprofit will be representative of all stakeholders. He said he hopes hospital systems, mental health providers, local businesses, law enforcement, and schools will be included.

“This is not a BayCare initiative, it’s only going to be as successful as the support we can get.”

Suicide Prevention: Strategies That Work

Today, May 6, 2019 | 3 – 4:30p.m. EDT

Today, SAMHSA will host the Awareness Day 2019 event, with the theme of “Suicide Prevention: Strategies That Work.”

National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day (Awareness Day) shines a national spotlight on the importance of caring for every child’s mental health, and reinforces that positive mental health is essential to a child’s healthy development.

Suicide prevention experts, senior government officials, as well as a family member and young adult representative who have been affected by suicide, will share evidence-based suicide prevention practices that can save lives. We invite you to join us for this important discussion about how we can all prevent suicide for children, youth, and young adults.

Watch the live webcast

No matter where you are, you can join the conversation using#HeroesofHopeon Twitter and Facebook.

Students ages 16 to 18 years old are invited to participate in the “Speaking Up About Mental Health!” essay contest to explore ways to address the stigma and social barriers that adolescents from racial and ethnic minority populations may face when seeking mental health treatment.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for youths aged 15 to 24, yet only about half of young adults with a mental disorder receive treatment. In an effort to address this disparity and further conversations about mental health among high schoolers, the National Institutes of Health invites students ages 16 to 18 years old to participate in the “Speaking Up About Mental Health!” essay contest. Essays should explore ways to address the stigma and social barriers that adolescents from racial and ethnic minority populations may face when seeking mental health treatment. The contest is led by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), in collaboration with the Calvin J. Li Memorial Foundation(link is external), and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). NIMH and NIMHD are components of NIH.

“Teens have important stories to tell about their experiences with mental health treatment, and we hope this contest will give them an opportunity to express their thoughts and ideas. It’s clear we need to work with them to better understand mental health stigma and the barriers they may face when seeking mental health treatment,” said Joshua Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., director of NIMH.

Ideas for essay topics could include:

• Creative ways to start a conversation about mental health or related stigma
  
• Innovative approaches to remove, reduce, or lower barriers to mental health treatment
  
• Suggested changes in school policies or practices that could help reduce stigma
  
• Other areas of concern to individuals and their communities with respect to mental health
  

This contest was started as part of the Healthy Mind Initiative, which aims to increase mental health awareness and promote suicide prevention in Asian American and Pacific Islander youth, although the contest is open to all high school youths nationwide. The goal of the initiative is to reach a population that may view mental health care negatively, or may not consider it at all, due to stigma, lack of awareness and education, or differences in cultural conceptualization of mental health.

“Every year millions of Americans struggle with mental illness, which does not discriminate,” said Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, M.D., director of NIMHD. “Severe mental Illness occurs in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups and access to treatment is a special challenge for disadvantaged populations.”

Contest rules and prize information:

There is no application fee to participate, and entries should be submitted by May 31, 2019 on Challenge.gov. Winners will be announced on Sept. 30, 2019. The contest is open to all current U.S. or U.S. territory high school students ages 16 to 18 at the time of submission. Some entrants may not be eligible to receive an NIH prize, but may be recognized as a finalist and eligible for a non-NIH cash prize from the Calvin J. Li Memorial Foundation. Prize winners and finalists will have their essays posted on the Healthy Mind Initiative website.

For more information on the rules of the contest and registration requirements see the contest webpage at www.challenge.gov or by contacting MHHighSchoolEssay@mail.nih.gov.

BY FRANK FERNANDEZ | FRANK.FERNANDEZ@NEWS-JRNL.COM | APRIL 15, 2019

IN THE SERIES: MAIN | SUICIDES | ACCIDENTAL SHOOTINGS | UNSOLVED SHOOTINGS | SHOT BY A COP | LIMITING VIOLENCE

Nestor Lazuka circled the day, June 14, 2018, on a calendar. It was a Thursday, and marked nine-months since his wife's death.

He left several thousand dollars on a desk in his Port Orange home for his mother, and then he drove about 2 ½ miles to the Volusia Memorial Funeral Home on Clyde Morris Blvd. He had been there the day before making his funeral arrangements.

Lazuka walked behind the funeral home and sat near the flower delivery entrance with his back to some hedges. He draped an American flag across his lap.

Then Lazuka stuck a .38-caliber revolver in his mouth and shot himself.

Lazuka had parked his Ford Explorer nearby. Inside police found a note signed by Lazuka describing the order in which he would like his family and friends notified of his death and how his possessions should be distributed. Police also found a note in which Lazuka described the gun he used, saying it was a black, hammerless .38-special. He added: "This was a voluntary suicide."

Demographically, the 70-year-old Lazuka was like the majority of people who chose to end their own lives with a gun in Volusia and Flagler counties in 2018 — an older, white man.

The News-Journal collected and analyzed every local report of suicide and attempted suicide in 2018. The effort was part of a first-of-its kind overall analysis of every incident in which a person was shot during the year in the two-county area. The shootings sometimes involved crimes or accidents. But nearly 80 percent of the fatal shootings were suicides.

Lazuka, like everyone else in the two counties who used a gun to attempt suicide last year, was able to kill himself.

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The difference in the success rate of those who use a gun to kill themselves as opposed to those who attempt suicide by other means is stark.

Records gathered from all 15 police agencies and the medical examiner show that all 89 people in Volusia and Flagler who used a gun in 2018 to attempt suicide died. 

In contrast, last year there were 419 suicide attempts without the use of guns in the two counties. Of those attempts, 63 were successful.

“We know if a person is suicidal, if there is a firearm in the home, one of the first things that need to be done is remove that firearm,” Sharbono said.

Nearly 22,000 people in the United States, including more than 950 children and teens, kill themselves with a firearm every year, according to Everytown For Gun Safety, a gun control and anti-gun violence advocacy group.

Nationally, 85 percent of people who intentionally shoot themselves die of their wounds, according to Everytown, which cites studies from 2004 and 2012.

By contrast, only 5 percent of people who try to end their lives without a gun manage to kill themselves, according to the organization, which cited studies from 2001 and 2012. Nationally, nearly two-thirds of deaths involving guns are suicides

The number of children and teens in the United States who visited emergency rooms for suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts doubled between 2007 and 2015, according to a new analysis.

Researchers used publicly available data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, administered by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention every year. From the 300 emergency rooms sampled, the researchers tracked the number of children between 5 and 18 who received a diagnosis of suicidal ideation or suicide attempts each year.

Diagnoses of either condition increased from 580,000 in 2007 to 1.12 million in 2015, according to the study, published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. The average age of a child at the time of evaluation was 13, and 43% of the visits were in children between 5 and 11.
Suicides under age 13: One every 5 days
Suicides under age 13: One every 5 days

"The numbers are very alarming," said Dr. Brett Burstein, the lead study author and a pediatric emergency room physician at Montreal Children's Hospital of McGill University Health Centre. "It also represents a larger percentage of all pediatric emergency department visits. Where suicidal behavior among the pediatric population was just 2% of all visits, that's now up to 3.5%."

The findings come as no surprise to child psychiatrists.

"We know that suicide and depression have been rising significantly," said Dr. Gene Beresin, executive director of The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the study.

Depression and a prior suicide attempt are the two biggest risk factors for suicide, and with rates of suicide on the rise, it makes sense for risk factors to increase as well, he explained.

The reason? It's complicated

One reason for the increase in depression and suicidal behaviors may be more stress and pressure on kids, Beresin said.

"Kids are feeling more pressure to achieve, more pressure in school, and are more worried about making a living than in previous years," he said.

Parents and caregivers are also more stressed, Beresin said, adding that rates of suicides have increased in all age groups over the past 20 years and that the stress is passed down to children and teens.

Another reason may be the rise of social media and increasing rates of cyberbullying that have come with it, Beresin said.
Suicide rate hit 40-year peak among older teen girls in 2015
Suicide rate hit 40-year peak among older teen girls in 2015

Approximately 15% of US high school students report that they've been bullied online in the past year, according to the CDC. A Pew Research Center survey found that the number could be even higher: 59%.

"Cyberbullying can be especially difficult for kids," explained Dr. Neha Chaudhary, child and adolescent psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Brainstorm: Stanford Lab for Brain Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship. "Unlike in settings like schools, it can fly under the radar without anyone knowing it's happening and without the same repercussions for the bullies."

In isolation, none of these factors has been proven to lead to an increase in suicidal behaviors and ultimately suicide, but taken together, a pattern begins to emerge, Beresin said.

And the country may not be adequately equipped to deal with the problem.

Families left waiting

According to data from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the majority of the United States faces a severe shortage of practicing child and adolescent psychiatrists, with fewer than 17 providers available per 100,000 children.

This means many families face long wait times, which can lead to worsening of a child's underlying mental health condition and an eventual need for more treatment sessions than if the condition had been addressed in its early stages, explained Jennifer Mautone, a psychologist in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

The available qualified providers face another challenge: communicating with other systems caring for children.

Many systems are aimed at caring for children, including the education, health care, juvenile justice and child welfare systems, said Dr. Barbara Robles-Ramamurthy, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio who was not involved in the study.

"All of these systems that are supposed to be caring for children oftentimes are not talking to each other," she said. "A lot of times, kids fall through the cracks, and families are not getting the appropriate support they need."

According to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics in February, half of kids in the United States with mental health conditions like depression and anxiety go untreated.
Rising rates of mental health conditions in youth coupled with difficulties accessing care and long waiting lists is a bad combination, Beresin said.

Burstein, who regularly sees children and teens in the emergency department with suicidal behaviors, worries that the rates will continue to increase.

"We are seeing an acceleration of this issue, and I worry that we have not yet seen the peak," he said.

Click the image to download the Mental Health in Florida brochure.