Polk county behavioral health improvement project - during a 2019 polk community prioritization exercise, conducted by the florida department of health, behavioral health, including mental health…

Polk county behavioral health improvement project - during a 2019 polk community prioritization exercise, conducted by the florida department of health, behavioral health, including mental health and substance abuse, was identified as the number one health priority for polk county, florida. This led to the polk county board of county commissioners' indigent healthcare citizen's oversight committee to contract with crescendo consulting group to perform a behavioral health assessment. The assessment proved that 11% of polk county adults regularly struggle with mental health issues, 15% have been told that they have a depressive disorder, and almost 19,000 polk county adults have been diagnosed as having a serious mental illness. The assessment also found that suicidal ideation, planning, attempts, and completed suicides remain a growing challenge for polk county. The number of completed suicides in polk county averages 18.7 suicides for every 100,00 individuals, a statistic higher than the state average of 18.7 suicides per 100,000 individuals. Youth ages 11-14 were also found to have significant behavioral health challenges with 22% of middle schoolers having serious thoughts of suicide and 8% actually attempting suicide. Polk county youth also experience higher rates of child abuse with 746 incidents per 100,000 individuals, higher than the national average of 489 incidents per 100,000 individuals. Additionally, our youth experience a greater incidence of interaction with the foster care programs. In polk county, 702.1 children per 100,000 are in foster care in comparison to the national average of 293.1. Substance abuse continues to be a problem for polk county. The county's overall drug-related mortality rate in polk county is 28 deaths per 100,000 individuals. More specifically, the rate of opioid deaths for the county nearly doubled from 5% in 2014 to 11% in 2018. As a result of the findings, polk county wishes to implement strategies designed to strengthen the county's behavioral health outcomes for its citizens, including its high-risk population of 482 incarcerated individuals. More specifically, polk county will provide peer specialist training, counseling, case management, substance disorder treatment, and mental health treatment within the county's jail system. Polk county will also implement strategies designed to assist our youth with behavioral health and substance abuse disorders. These strategies include a district-wide behavioral health GAP assessment of the school district which will provide the school system with a strategic plan to implement effective and comprehensive school-wide behavioral health services. Another initiative will train adults in teen mental health first aid. These adults will then educate youth in mental health first aid, providing young people with the information and skills to be mindful of their own mental health and support their friends and peers. Polk county will also launch a multi-media, public awareness campaign that will educate and reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues. Lack of awareness and lack of education about behavioral health symptoms, prevention, and available resources foster low levels of accessing behavioral health care by those who need IT. In addition, stigma can make people more likely to hide symptoms or illness, keep them from seeking health care immediately, and prevent individuals from adopting healthy behaviors. The remaining initiative will provide a public-facing website which will allow users to access information on local behavioral health resources, symptoms, providers, and behavioral health data, and will also provide narrative aimed at "normalizing" behavioral health challenges. Polk county is pleased to present these initiatives aimed at building foundations that will mitigate current behavioral health challenges, facilitate additional behavioral health resources for the future, and improve the general quality of life for polk county residents.