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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



 
 
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Old February 6th 04, 06:39 PM
wexwimpy
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Default 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
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