TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made an appearance in Tampa on Wednesday morning to take steps forward to expand efforts for mental health and substance abuse.
He signed two bills into law which he said will expand resources, access, and programs for people struggling with mental health and substance abuse disorders.
The Governor said Florida has done a lot over the years with both issues, through the Resiliency of Florida Initiative that provides a wide variety of issues or the state emergency 988 hotline. DeSantis said the State is taking more steps forward with these two new laws.
The first one is Florida Senate Bill 1620, “which implements key recommendations made by Florida’s commission on mental health and substance abuse disorder,” he said.
Leaders said one bill will build a system to help prevent the worst type of crisis from happening and sets people up for success.
“Maximize collaboration in key moments in settings and improve the state’s ability to utilize behavioral health data to measure outcomes and identify future opportunities. More specifically, this legislation addresses the challenges many individuals with serious individuals face in taking daily medications by expanding the use of long-acting medicine,” said Taylor Hatch, the Secretary for the Florida Department of Children and Families.
The other bill signed into law is Senate Bill 168, also known as the Tristan Murphy Act.
“Tristan Murphy was a young man, he had schizophrenia, paranoia, and delusions and was not provided the mental health care that he was really in dire need of when he got involved with the criminal justice system,” DeSantis said.
The Governor said Murphy was not provided a pathway to have mental health intervention.
“This led to a tragedy in 2021 on a work detail, Tristan committed suicide,” he said. “So, under this bill, counties and municipalities, are going to be able to establish misdemeanor mental health programs, as well as pre-trial felony programs. So, that if people are in the justice system and they have this particularly really significant mental health afflictions, so we don’t think somehow just putting them in jail is going to fix that.”
This bill expands criminal justice mental health and substance abuse and prioritizes enhanced treatment and training, along with mental health diversion options.
“Aims to bring comfort to families with loved ones with mental illness that worry about their loved one having an interaction with the criminal justice system,” Thatch said. “More specifically, the legislation expands the use of community based mental health services for individuals living with mental illness, who are involved in the criminal justice system.”
The Governor said through working with the Florida Senate and USF, they are also officially naming the Florida Mental Health Institute after State Senator Darryl Rouson, who has been dedicated and influential with both substance abuse and mental health.
