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Sarasota County Recognized by Florida Partners in Crisis
Sarasota County has been recognized for its innovative leadership in acute care systems by Florida Partners in Crisis, Inc. The award, the first of its kind, was presented to the Sarasota Board of County Commissioners during a meeting December 11 by Michele Saunders, the executive director of the organization. Florida Partners in Crisis is a statewide association and advocacy group for organizations and local governments involved in acute care systems.
Individuals recognized in the award included Chief Judge Lee Haworth, chair of the Criminal Justice Commission; former Chief Judge Bob Bennett, the previous chair of the Criminal Justice Commission; and Bill Little, chair of the Community Alliance’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Stakeholders’ Consortium.
During the past three years, Sarasota County has launched the Community Alternative Residential Treatment (CART) Initiative. The CART Initiative includes the creation of a 30-bed Adult Addictions Receiving Facility for persons in crisis; more than 3,000 persons have received medically-supervised detoxification services since the opening of the facility in August 2006.
The second component of the CART Initiative, known as the Voluntary Interim Placement- Enhanced Recovery (VIP-ER) Program, is a 30-bed residential treatment program for persons in recovery from substance abuse; 165 persons participate in this program each year, with 78% completing the program successfully. This program is a partnership of seven community service providers. Follow-up case management services have revealed that 44% of the graduates are still sober, residing in stable housing, and gainfully employed 12 months after graduation.
The final component of the initiative is Sober Housing, which provides transitional housing for persons successfully completing the VIP-ER Program, who have no home to return to, as well as Drug Court and Mental Health Court participants and other substance abuse program graduates. At this time there are 124 beds available for this population.
In addition, the County has sponsored Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for more than 250 local law enforcement officers, jail staff, and others in the criminal justice system who are in daily contact with persons suffering from mental health and substance abuse issues. CIT trained officers have learned the signs and symptoms of persons with mental health and substance abuse issues, communication techniques, and the community resources available to these individuals, creating informed decision making.
Sarasota County has developed strong community partnerships to address the complex issues that governments, agencies, and individuals must deal with in the substance abuse/ mental health and criminal justice systems. Those partnerships include the Criminal Justice Commission and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Stakeholders’ Consortium.