Its a powerful lens into Floridas mental health crisis.
The numbers. More than 161,000.
And the kids, nearly 30,000 of them.
Thats what stands out to us from Floridas latest annual Baker Act report created by USFs Center for Baker Act Reporting.
The Baker Act is a state law that allows designated professionals to initiate a 72-hour involuntary psychiatric exam on someone they deem to be a threat to themselves or others.
According to the state report, during the fiscal year 2023/2024, there were more than 16,000 Baker Act exams conducted in Florida. Just over 18% of those involuntary exams were on children.
Baker Act USF Annual Report 2023 2024 by ABC Action News on Scribd
Thats right, nearly one in five Baker Act exams in the past year was on a child, 17 years old or younger, according to the report.
For context, thats down from a year earlier and the year before that when just over one in five Baker Act exams was on a child.
If you are looking for some good news here, taking population growth into account, the percentage of Baker Act exams on kids last fiscal year is the lowest its been since the pandemic.
5-year history of Baker Act exams on children in Florida
Source: USF Center for Baker Act Reporting 2023/2024 Annual Report
2023/2024- 29,612 2022/2023- 33,685 2021/2022- 34,234 2020/2021- 38,557 2019/2020- 35,965
I think, in general, we are doing a better job with our children, getting to them younger and younger, said April Lott, Executive Director of Directions for Living, a mental health treatment center in Clearwater where kids who are committed under the Baker Act can get treatment after theyre discharged.
It is unfortunate that, often, we get children after a Baker Act when we believe if we had gotten them before the Baker Act, we might have been able to prevent that traumatic experience, she explained.
Those traumatic experiences weve documented for the past five years as parents and caregivers described their own childrens Baker Act experiences.
I felt like it was a form of punishment, one mom told us in 2019.
Its very traumatizing, a grandmother described.
For years, images of children handcuffed and taken away by police under the states Baker Act law has inspired cries of overuse, abuse, and the need for reform.
During the fiscal year 2023/2024, a report done by the USF Center for Baker Act Reporting concluded:
161,576 total involuntary exams 29,612 involuntary exams involved children under 18 Involuntary exams on children represented 18.33% of all Baker Act exams.
And while these latest numbers show reforms, including mobile crisis response teams and more funding for early treatment, are having some positive impact, its a different set of numbers that has Lott still so concerned about how the Baker Act is being used on children.
According to the report, in some cases, children are baker acted twice, three times, four times, or even more.
In fact, last year, nearly 400 Florida kids were committed under the Baker Act law 6 to 10 times, according to the states report.
Potentially, that means a child has attempted to die by suicide six to 10 times. That’s a startling number, Lott said. What’s not working? Why are we not able to hold them tight enough that they wouldn’t have a future attempt to take their life, she asked.