This week, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned in an advisory that the mental health crisis is weighing heavily on parents struggling with economic and societal concerns as they try to raise their kids,
- Escambia County should be ahead of the curve on this crisis, but are we?
Three years ago, State Rep. Michelle Salzman called together community and state leaders for a two-hour meeting to create a mental health task force that would create a blueprint for dealing with crisis and address gaps in service across the region.
- Salzman highlighted her family’s mental illness history – her mother’s schizophrenia, both parents’ opioid addiction, and her daughter’s eating disorder.
Status: The task force has been meeting behind doors without significant outcomes:
1) The Five marketing campaign – Take 5 – announced in March 2022, which “followed the Task Force’s first quarter Ask 5 campaign, which reminded people to take a moment to ask 5 people if they’re ok.”
2) Northwest Florida Task Force Strategic Plan announced in May 2023 – a road map for mental health care
- The only implementation has been hiring an employee tasked with driving the implementation of the strategic plan. What else?
- Salzman refused to release information on who paid for the plan, but we got it from the UWF foundation.
3) Fall 2023 – Salzman announced a new project not in the strategic plan – “Florida’s First Community-Based Long-term Care Facility.”
- The PNJ was given exclusive access to the closed-door meeting.
- Crickets since.