Florida Legislative Policy Priorities 2024-2025

The FLMHAC caucuses annually to prioritize legislation that will improve the mental health landscape in the state of Florida. The following are legislative priorities we are actively promoting in our state.

LEAD

FLORIDA'S 988 AND (BEHAVIORAL HEALTH) CRISIS LINE: Support legislative budget requests from the Department of Children and Families for Florida’s 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline System. Ensure the funding is recurring to build the Lifelines as 988 calls increase, and Florida Lifelines gear up to take local texts and chats. Funding should replace any federal grants as they phase out, such as the SAMHSA (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration) grant that ends June 30, 2026.

REPRESENTATION OF PEERS & FAMILIES Per SAMHSA’s Office of Recovery, include people with lived/living experiences to improve behavioral health practice and policy and to foster the social inclusion of people with behavioral health conditions. https://www.samhsa.gov/about-us/who-we-are/offices-centers/or.

COLLABORATE

STATEWIDE PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING Please maintain existing funding for extremely and very low-income housing within the Live Local Act and utilize the FL Supportive Housing Coalition (FSHC) to provide an implementation strategy for the Governor’s State Plan to create 12,811 units of Permanent Supportive Housing for vulnerable populations that include those with serious mental illness.

INTEGRATE PRIMARY AND BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CARE to improve outcomes, increase the effectiveness and efficiency of providing care, reduce costs, and improve access to adequate primary care for those living with serious mental illness.

SUPPORT EXPANSION OF CERTIFIED COMMUNITY BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CLINICS that provide treatment for mental health and substance use as well as primary health care. CCBHCs work with other community health agencies to fill gaps in care, including crisis care, thus building upon the 988 system.

IMPROVE ACCESS TO CARE by ensuring that health insurance covers behavioral health care in the same way and at the same rates as it covers other medical health care.

ADD MORE COMMUNITY RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT CENTERS for people with mental illness to allow time to find medications that work best for them. Provide short-term (up to 3 months) as well as longer-term stays and various levels of care so that a therapeutic setting is available for each individual to move to recovery.

EARLY INTERVENTION Ensure adequate state coverage and capacity of First Episode Psychosis Programs and remove barriers for behavioral health clinicians to work on-site in family pediatric practices.

PEER SPECIALISTS Provide more training so that more peers can become Certified Peer Recovery Specialists for Mental Health and Substance Use Recovery. Ensure peers can earn a living wage and are not used to replace clinical behavioral health workers.

LIMIT SOLITARY CONFINEMENT and eliminate its use for high-risk populations, including people with serious mental illness. This would lead to fewer psychiatric symptoms, lower rates of violence, improved re-entry and transitions back into the community, and increased cost savings to correctional systems. Extreme isolation can have a permanent impact and significantly increase the risk of suicide and self-injury.