Behind kids being 'Baker Acted': Sad stories, but some encouraging numbers | Gil Smart

I went out to New Horizons of the Treasure Coast’s Fort Pierce main campus because I wanted to learn more about the Baker Act — specifically, what happens after a kid is “Baker Acted.”

That means they’re committed for an involuntary psychiatric examination. Across Florida — and across the Treasure Coast — the number of Baker Act exams has been rising, and kids make up a bigger percentage than ever before.

So New Horizons’ Frances Langford Center for Children seemed a good place to find out why. It’s a place where kids in crisis — kids who are being Baker Acted — are taken to be stabilized.

It’s not the only such place on the Treasure Coast; but according to statistics from the University of South Florida’s Baker Act Reporting Center, New Horizons handled 44 percent of all Baker Act involuntary exams in St. Lucie County in 2017-18, 63 percent in Okeechobee County, 34 percent in Martin County and 6 percent in Indian River County.

New Horizons conducted 2,630 Baker Act exams in 2017-18, up 19.4 percent from the year before.

If you want to think of the burgeoning mental health crisis afflicting kids and everyone else in our community as a battle — this is the front line.

More: Number of kids 'Baker Acted' keeps rising; is there any solution? | Gil Smart

More: Florida kids sent to psychiatric units under the Baker Act in record numbers

Chris English, program manager for the Children’s Crisis Stabilization Unit, gave me a tour of the brightly painted cinder block facility. Here’s where the kids are brought in and patted down. Here’s where they’re initially assessed by a nurse; do they really need to be here? What meds are they on? Then they see a doctor, usually a psychiatrist. Then they get a room, where they’ll stay for two, three, four or more days until family comes to pick them up.

Except, sometimes family doesn’t come to pick them up. Which, of all the sad things the folks at New Horizons told me earlier this month, might be the saddest.

Some parents, said English, don’t want to pick up their kids when their stay at New Horizons is completed. These kids tend to be "repeat clients," whose families didn't follow through on the counseling or other services the child needs.

“Sometimes mom or dad will say, ‘He (the child) doesn’t get along with my new boyfriend or girlfriend,” said English. Maybe the kid’s been involved in a gang, and his or her family is at the end of their rope.

"Home" could be marked by drugs, neglect, violence and abuse.

"Home" could be the reason these kids get Baker Acted in the first place.

But there are lots of other reasons as well.

“A large number of the kids who come here are bullied,” said Andrea Gates-Gonzales, division director of inpatient services. They may get to a point they just can’t hack it anymore and threaten to lash out.

Scholastic pressures are another reason; according to stats provided by New Horizons, the number of Baker Act involuntary exams spikes during the school year.

Bottom line, every kid who gets Baker Acted “has some underlying issue that needs to be addressed,” English said. And those issues have manifested themselves in disturbing ways.

The Langford Center opened in 1996, and back then English said there weren't as many "angry, violent" kids as there are today. "Now we have more disenfranchised kids, more out-of-control kids," he said.

Again: Why? And it's impossible to know; it's a combination of things.

But there are strategies that may be starting to bear some fruit.

More mental health counselors are being deployed in more schools. There's not nearly enough funding to put them in all schools, but districts that have hired the most counselors — Gates-Gonzalez and English specifically mentioned the St. Lucie and Okeechobee county school districts — seem to be seeing a decrease in the need to Baker Act kids.

Meanwhile, New Horizons' 24-hour mobile crisis unit can send a masters degree-level mental health specialist to assess those in crisis and maybe defuse a situation that would otherwise result in a person being Baker Acted.

New Horizons offers crisis training for first responders and can train teachers to spot signs of depression and suicidal behavior.

More: Like Gil Smart's column? Subscribe to TCPalm!

Recent numbers offer a glimmer of hope.

The number of total admissions at the Langford Center — which includes all four counties and isn’t limited to kids who’ve been Baker Acted — had shot up in recent years. But beginning in June of this year, those numbers began to fall.

For example, in August 2018, a total of 74 kids were admitted; this past August, just 57 were. In September 2018, 125 kids were admitted; this September, that number fell to 92.

None of this indicates the problem's been "solved." But it would be nice to think that we as a society are finally catching up to this crisis, and that the numbers — and the damaged, traumatized people behind them — can't keep rising forever.

"We're trying different things to see what works," said English.

And until the state of Florida starts allocating significantly more money for mental health services, allowing New Horizons and other providers to meet the growing need — that's about the best we've got.

Gil Smart is a TCPalm columnist and a member of the Editorial Board. His columns reflect his opinion. Readers may reach him at gil.smart@tcpalm.com, by phone at 772-223-4741 or via Twitter at @TCPalmGilSmart.