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Medication cut causes concern Some are taken aback after the North Broward Hospital District says it can no longer afford to provide drugs for poor people with mental illnesses.Medication cut causes concern Some are taken aback after the North Browar
Medication cut causes concern Some are taken aback after the North
Broward Hospital District says it can no longer afford to provide drugs for poor people with mental illnesses. By CAROL MARBIN MILLER AND ASHLEY FANTZ NORTH BROWARD HOSPITAL DISTRICT Marc Esko, homeless 10 years ago, remembers turning to Henderson Mental Health Center's free clinic in Fort Lauderdale for therapy and medication. He received both and went on to become an outspoken advocate for poor people with mental illnesses. On Thursday, Esko, 48, added his voice to a chorus of advocates and mental health officials who say Broward County is on the brink of leaving between 800 and 1,000 residents with mental illness without the same drugs that saved his life. ''We in the mental health arena have been screaming for years that mental health and physical health are equally important,'' said Esko, at a hastily called meeting at the Florida Department of Children & Families offices. The North Broward Hospital District has announced it will no longer pay for psychiatric drugs for indigent Broward residents with chronic and severe mental illness. District officials say they have not been paid for most of the medications, and no longer can afford to shoulder the costs. The district's primary healthcare program never was intended to provide mental healthcare, said Jasmin D. Shirley, a hospital district vice president for health systems development. It was designed to prevent and treat mostly minor illnesses and injuries among county residents who cannot afford routine healthcare. ''There is just not enough money out there for us to keep subsidizing these agencies for services we are not supposed to be providing,'' Shirley said. ``We can't shoulder all of the county. . .. . Our primary healthcare contract is not a retail pharmacy for the community.'' Said district spokeswoman Sara Howley: ``This is very much a community issue, not a North Broward Hospital District issue alone.'' But mental health advocates say curtailing the program will leave hundreds of residents at enormous risk. ''Psychiatric drugs are the tether to normalcy, literally the lifeline for the mentally ill people who depend on them,'' said Howard Finkelstein, Broward's chief assistant public defender and a longtime mental health advocate. ``It seems to me that Broward County is in the midst of one of the greatest crises in mental health for the last 25 years.'' Statewide, DCF pays $8 million each year for psychiatric drugs for indigents. ''There is not sufficient funding,'' said Pat Kramer, the DCF mental health administrator in Broward. She is most concerned with the district's decision to stop the payments so quickly, she said. ''I appealed to them today to consider delaying the implementation of this,'' Kramer said. But district officials said they alerted officials at Henderson Mental Health a few months ago. Kramer has no firm estimate for how much it will cost the state and county to pay for the drugs the hospital district will no longer cover. Officials say the cost could lie somewhere between $2 million and $4 million. District officials say they will save about $250,000 by no longer funding mental health drugs, Shirley said. But the state estimates the cost of the program is in the millions http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald...ty/7886781.htm Defend your civil liberties! Get information at http://www.aclu.org, become a member at http://www.aclu.org/join and get active at http://www.aclu.org/action. |
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