Northeast Florida Behavioral Health Solutions
About Us
The Mental Health Coalition was formed following three years of information gathering by the Mayor's Adult Mental Health Task Force.
The Task Force produced Jacksonville first Mental Health Strategic Plan, calling for the Coalition to implement the plan's recommendations, and to continue coordinated efforts to improve efforts to improve the delivery of recovery based services.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has long since recognized the need for effective community involvement especially in the area of mental health. From various police calls for service and reports in which mental illness, suicide, suicide attempts, Baker Act, depression, and/or prior violence were mentioned, the JSO investigated mental health police contacts based on the cIty's fiscal year. It should be noted that this assessment is not inclusive of all mental health people or mental health services in Jacksonville. Since fiscal year 2006, the JSO has examined mental health related police data in an effort to:
- Understand people and issues that affect our community,
- Analyze the need for increased mental health services,
- Provide further education regarding the identification of mental health emergencies to police and corrections,
- Visualize through a series of maps the clusters of mental health police contacts related to the location of city services,
- Make recommendations to better serve our community by implementing additional mental health outreach, increased mental health education, programs, and initiatives.
The following data represents mental health related police contacts for the FY 2006, FY2007 and FY 2008 based on age, race, gender and frequency of contact for individuals with mental health issues.
The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health and the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health both indicate that the nation’s mental health system is fragmented, disorganized, ineffective, and in disarray. Jacksonville's Mental health Strategic Plan indicates that its mental health system also suffers the same problems; in fact, it serves less than 20% of those with even the most severe mental illnesses. Jacksonville has an estimated 62,000 persons with severe mental illnesses, and over 171,000 with a diagnosable mental illness, yet public funding supports services to only about 11,000 adults with severe mental illnesses. The rate of individuals with serious mental illnesses in the country’s jails is three to four times that found in the general population.
