Florida Statute 394.451-394.47891, or the Florida Mental Health Act, more commonly known as the Baker Act, is killing Florida’s psychiatric systems. This controversial law takes away patient autonomy in the name of “good” mental health. But how good is it? Or rather, who is allowed to take away one of our most important liberties?
Just about anyone can decide to take away these rights: judges, police officers and even teachers. This is alarming given how none of these groups have clinical mental health training and it shows. Each day, roughly 100 kids are coerced to take a psychological assessment. Of these, many get put in psychological institutions on a faulty basis.
This does more harm than good. It overwhelms the system and denies space for the needy. Children who do not listen to rules are just children, not psych patients. The law also disproportionately puts children with disabilities into institutions. Children as young as six have been put in these institutions, taking them out of school while also placing all the stigma upon them.
Yet with all this in mind, what is being done about this crisis? Well in 2022, a full rework and overhaul was almost passed, but eventually, a less extreme yet more damaging version was approved; these changes gave more freedoms to police officers and less to the children. Before its passing Senator Aaron Bean described how a change was needed but was unsure of what. This is because the “nature of mental illness” makes implementing “minor tweaks” difficult– a reason I find to be complete nonsense.
What needs to change is that only people with clinical psychological credentials should be the ones performing assessments. Likewise, kids should only be admitted when they show signs of suicidal ideation or non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Teachers should still be able to report behavior and should be taken seriously but from there the government needs to provide an assessment from a psychiatrist, psychologist, or psychiatric nurse practitioner.
From then, biological treatment via medication and psychological treatment via therapy should be admitted in proper and healthy environments (sociological healing). The only ones who should be responsible for the admittance are the clinical practitioners of psychology, these matters should be brought to court only after attempts to persuade the patient to voluntary admittance.
Regardless, the Baker Acts have resulted in some positive outcomes, but these instances are few and far between. Already, Florida has an undeveloped psychiatric system so there is not much room for treatment, then that little space gets heavily tested under this law. Of the ones who truly need help, they do not get the care they need due to the overflowing amount of falsely admitted patients.
To conclude, Florida has a long way to go in its treatment of those struggling with mental health. Florida’s law around mental health is some of the worst in the country and it is only a matter of time until something changes. The victims of this system need it, I hope and pray for them that help is coming.
