Executive Summary

Florida’s Baker Act, the Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, authorizes law enforcement, health professionals, and courts to involuntarily detain individuals experiencing a mental health crisis for up to 72-hour psychiatric examinations.

The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) now publishes a Baker Act Dashboard at myflfamilies.com/BakerActDashboard, offering real-time visibility into the scale, geography, and demographics of this coercive intervention. The data it reveals are stark: Florida detains its residents at a rate that is among the highest in the nation, subjects tens of thousands of children to involuntary psychiatric custody every year, and cycles the most vulnerable individuals through the system repeatedly; without resolving the underlying crises that keep bringing them back.[1][2][3]

This report argues, on the basis of dashboard data, peer-reviewed clinical research, investigative journalism, legislative records, and patient and family testimony, that coercive psychiatric detention does not work as a therapeutic intervention and, in many cases, causes direct and lasting harm. It further argues that the persistent decline in Baker Act examinations following recent legislative reforms, particularly those expanding parental rights and mandating clinical gatekeeping before school-initiated detentions, is not a crisis to be managed but a success to be accelerated. The evidence points overwhelmingly toward one conclusion: voluntary, community-based, peer-supported alternative services produce better outcomes at lower cost and without the profound harms of coercion.

Section 1: The Scale of the Problem — What the Dashboard Reveals

Florida conducts involuntary Baker Act examinations at a volume unmatched by any other U.S. state. The dashboard and the annual reports of the USF Baker Act Reporting Center document this scale across recent years.

Data Source Note: The table below combines figures from two distinct data systems. Figures for FY 2018-2019 through FY 2022-2023 are drawn from USF Baker Act Reporting Center (BARC) Annual Reports, which relied primarily on paper Cover Sheet submissions (Form CF-MH 3118). These figures will not match the live Baker Act Dashboard at myflfamilies.com/BakerActDashboard, which is powered by the Baker Act Data Collection System (BADCS); a mandatory electronic platform that only became fully operational on July 1, 2023. In FY 2022-2023, only 2% of records were submitted via BADCS; the remaining 98% arrived on paper forms. The dashboard also uses date of arrival at the receiving facility as the record date, while earlier BARC annual reports used the date of examination initiation; a methodological difference that can shift the same exams across fiscal years. The dashboard is updated weekly and does not retroactively incorporate pre-BADCS historical data. Both sources are authoritative within their own scope; they are designed to be complementary, not duplicative.[4][3][1]

Even the most recent year, with the lowest numbers recorded, represents over 161,000 forced psychiatric detentions in a single state in a single year. The sustained reduction from the FY 2019-2020 peak coincides precisely with legislative reforms that gave parents more rights and required clinical oversight before school-initiated Baker Acts, a pattern that reveals something important: most of the reduction in Baker Acts was achieved not by better psychiatric treatment, but by reducing the number of unnecessary detentions in the first place.[6][5]

Florida’s rate of approximately 966 per 100,000 residents (2018) was the highest of 25 states studied in peer-reviewed research, 33 times higher than Connecticut’s rate of 29 per 100,000. This disparity cannot be explained by differences in mental illness prevalence; it reflects fundamental differences in how states respond to mental health crises, and it raises an unavoidable question: if states with far lower involuntary detention rates are not experiencing worse mental health outcomes, what justifies Florida’s extraordinary use of coercive force?[2]

Section 2: The Revolving Door — Evidence That Detention Fails to Treat

Repeat Examinations: A Statistical Indictment

If involuntary psychiatric examination worked as a therapeutic intervention, individuals who underwent it would stabilize, connect to care, and not return. The dashboard data tell a different story entirely.

In FY 2022-2023, approximately 25% of both children and adults subjected to involuntary Baker Act examination were detained two or more times in a single year. The individuals most in crisis, those detained six or more times, accounted for 12–14% of all examinations while representing only 2% of examined individuals. In FY 2022-2023, the DCF Baker Act Dashboard identified 10,341 individuals as “high utilizers” defined as three or more forced examinations within 180 days.[7][8][1]

Repeat Examination Data: Adults (FY 2022-2023)

Repeat Examination Data: Children (FY 2022-2023)

These numbers are not evidence of a mental health care system at work. They are evidence of its failure. A child detained under the Baker Act 10, 15, or 20 times in a single year is not receiving treatment; they are being cycled through crisis stabilization units that provide no continuity of care, no therapeutic alliance, and no resolution of the underlying conditions driving the crisis. Florida TaxWatch documented the dynamic plainly: “With no post-discharge continuum of care, the Baker Act has become a ‘revolving door’ for those with the most severe mental illnesses”.[9]

The Southern Poverty Law Center reached the same conclusion: “The high rate of repeat Baker Acts of the same children suggests that involuntary psychiatric holds fail to appropriately and accurately treat the underlying conditions” that led to the crisis in the first place.[10]

Section 3: The Research Case — Coercive Detention Causes Harm

Involuntary Hospitalization Worsens Outcomes for Many Patients

The peer-reviewed clinical literature has accumulated a powerful body of evidence that involuntary psychiatric detention does not merely fail to help it can actively harm those subjected to it. A 2024 systematic review published in Australasian Psychiatry found that involuntary inpatient admission triggers a “cycle of coercion”; in which the initial act of forced detention leads to poorer clinical rapport, increased measures of coercive care over time, greater likelihood of further forced interventions, higher healthcare costs, and decreased patient satisfaction.[11][12]

Most critically, the review found little evidence that involuntary admission was protective against suicide, and some evidence that it may in fact be a risk factor for inpatient suicide, citing a meta-analysis reporting an 87% increased risk of suicide among those admitted involuntarily compared to voluntary patients. The phenomenon, termed “nosocomial suicide”, refers to the possibility that psychiatric inpatient admission itself increases some patients’ risk of suicide.[12][11]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York — A Landmark Causal Study

The most methodologically rigorous study to date on the consequences of involuntary psychiatric hospitalization was published in 2025 by economists and researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services, and Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Examining Pennsylvania’s involuntary commitment system, the study analyzed “judgment call” cases; the approximately 43% of all evaluated patients where clinicians made discretionary decisions about whether to commit, rather than clear-cut medical emergencies.[13][14][15]

The findings were unambiguous: in judgment call cases, involuntary hospitalization nearly doubled the probability of the patient being charged with a violent crime or dying by suicide or overdose in the three months following commitment. The researchers found that the disruption effects of involuntary hospitalization; income and employment loss, increased homeless shelter usage, and the destruction of trust between the patient and the petitioner (often a loved one or social worker) outweighed any therapeutic benefit for this substantial category of patients. The lead researcher described these results as establishing “a causal link between hospitalization and harm”.[14][15][13]

This finding is directly applicable to Florida’s Baker Act: the dashboard data show that law enforcement initiated 53.76% of all examinations statewide, rising to 62% for children the category of initiator least likely to be making a clinical judgment and most likely to be making a discretionary “judgment call” of exactly the kind the study found to be harmful.[1]

Children: Trust Destroyed, Help Refused

A 2021 qualitative study of youth aged 16-27 who had experienced involuntary psychiatric hospitalization found that 70% reported negative impacts on their ability or willingness to trust others; most frequently mental health providers, but extending to authority figures and peers more broadly. Almost half reported “learning to lie” or “manipulate” staff to be discharged. A learned behavior that many then applied to their post-discharge interactions, actively hiding suicidal feelings from providers out of fear of being detained again.[16]

Three-quarters of young people in the study reported that the experience made them unwilling to disclose suicidal feelings, even when they continued to feel suicidal after discharge. Rather than creating pathways to help, forced hospitalization had trained these young people to conceal the very symptoms that warranted concern. A recent longitudinal study further found that patients who experienced perceived coercion during hospitalization admission were at greater likelihood of making a suicide attempt in the year following discharge, even after controlling for current suicidal ideation, existing diagnoses, and engagement in services.[16]

Research confirms that children subjected to physical restraint, a common practice in psychiatric inpatient settings, are particularly vulnerable to re-traumatization; given that 92% of youth referred to psychiatric residential treatment facilities already report a history of chronic traumatization. For a child who has been physically or sexually abused, a physical restraint administered by multiple adult staff is not a therapeutic intervention, it is a replication of their original trauma.[17]

The Cochrane Review: No Benefit Proven for Involuntary Outpatient Treatment

A systematic review and meta-analysis published in PubMed found that evidence for involuntary outpatient treatment reducing either admissions or bed-days is “very limited” and that it therefore “cannot be seen as a less restrictive alternative to admission”. No statistical difference was found in 12-month admission rates between subjects under involuntary outpatient orders and controls. The review concluded that other effects are uncertain and that a wide range of outcomes should be evaluated before this type of coercive intervention is expanded.[18]

A 2025 GAO Report: “Evidence Inconclusive”

A July 2025 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report examining the effectiveness of federally funded involuntary outpatient treatment programs — the subject of $146 million in federal grants over the past decade — concluded that assessments of these programs “remain inconclusive”. Even the federal government, which funds these programs, cannot demonstrate that they produce measurable therapeutic benefit that would not have been achieved by voluntary community care alone.[19]

Section 4: Voices of the Harmed — Patients and Families

Children Criminalized in Crisis

Children subjected to Baker Acts in Florida schools are frequently handcuffed, placed in police vehicles, and transported to hospital emergency rooms, sometimes waiting hours or days before being evaluated. They enter facilities they cannot leave, are separated from family, and have limited ability to contact anyone they trust. For young people already in crisis, this experience does not signal safety, it signals punishment.[20][21][16]

Young people in studies described the inpatient environment as “more punitive than therapeutic”, staff as “more judgmental than empathetic”, and hospitalization overall as failing to meet therapeutic needs. A qualitative synthesis published in the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing found that participants consistently described how trauma resulted from coercive practices, and how past traumas were revisited during restraint or seclusion.[22][16]

The Broward County School District paid $440,000 to settle claims involving four children with disabilities — including autism and ADHD — who were Baker Acted in direct violation of the statute’s prohibition on using the Baker Act for developmental disabilities. These children were not in psychiatric crisis; they were disabled children whose behaviors were misread by staff untrained to distinguish mental illness from developmental difference.[21]

Parents Locked Out of Their Children’s Care

Prior to the 2021 legislative reforms, Florida schools could remove a student for an involuntary mental health examination without first attempting to contact parents. Parents had no opportunity to intervene, explain their child’s history, or offer voluntary alternatives. They were informed after the Baker Act was already initiated and their child was in transit to or already inside a locked facility.[23][24]

The VA’s Office of Inspector General documented a case in which a veteran’s repeated involuntary admissions caused him to feel “misled” by the facility, leading him to disengage entirely from VA mental health services, ultimately contributing to his death by suicide. The systematic destruction of trust between patients and care providers is not a side effect of coercive psychiatric detention; for many patients, it is the primary effect.[25]

For-Profit Facilities: Profiting From Captive Patients

A Tampa Bay Times investigation exposed North Tampa Behavioral Health filing 592 involuntary placement petitions in a single year while dropping 86% of them before the hearing; a mechanism that kept patients legally trapped in the facility while billing approximately $670 per night, with one extra night of detention across all Baker Act patients worth $1.4 million in annual revenue. Patients were deceived into signing voluntary commitment forms on the false promise that doing so would “expedite their release”; when the opposite was true, as it eliminated judicial oversight of their continued detention.[26]

The facility had the fourth-highest profit margin of any Florida psychiatric hospital in 2017. CCHR Florida has called for state investigation into why for-profit psychiatric facilities operating under federal billing fraud investigations were still receiving state Medicaid contracts and Baker Act designations. In October 2025, a Florida jury awarded $8 million to a patient abused inside a Baker Act receiving facility; a verdict that underscores the serious physical and psychological harm that can occur when vulnerable individuals are locked in facilities without adequate oversight.[27][28][29]

Section 5: Disproportionate Harm to Marginalized Communities

Florida’s Baker Act does not fall equally on all communities. It falls hardest on those least able to resist coercive state power.

Children with disabilities are disproportionately Baker Acted even though the statute explicitly prohibits its use for developmental disabilities and specifies that “antisocial behavior” does not constitute mental illness. These children — many with autism, ADHD, or trauma histories — are being subjected to forced psychiatric detention for behaviors that reflect their disability, not a psychiatric emergency.[21]

Black children are dramatically overrepresented. Despite making up 20% of Florida pre-K through 5th graders, Black children account for 32% of those Baker Acted from schools. In Palm Beach County, 40 of 59 children under age 8 Baker Acted between 2016 and 2020 were Black. SPLC attorney Bacardi Jackson identified the structural driver directly: “We have more police officers in our schools than we have school nurses.” “When you look at how we spend our resources, this starts to explain why we are seeing these drastic increases in numbers of children being Baker Acted”.[30][31][21]

Research from a Nova Southeastern University study of Baker Act admissions found significant racial disparities, with Black/African American individuals disproportionately represented even after controlling for other factors. A 2025 Washington University poll found that only 45% of Americans support even short-term involuntary hospitalization, a minority position, while strong bipartisan majorities favor community-based voluntary services instead.[32][33]

Section 6: Legislative Reforms That Prove Fewer Forced Detentions Are Possible

The sustained decline in Baker Act examinations following targeted legislative reforms demonstrates that Florida’s historically high rates were not inevitable — they were the product of a system design that could be, and is being, changed. Crucially, this reduction was achieved not through better psychiatric treatment but through reducing unnecessary detentions in the first place.

SB 590 (2021) — School Safety Act

Senate Bill 590, effective July 1, 2021, inserted critical safeguards before schools could initiate a Baker Act on a student:[34][35]

• Required parental notification before a student is removed for involuntary examination (with a narrow safety exception)[23]
• Required de-escalation attempts before any involuntary examination is initiated[35]
• Required crisis intervention training for all school safety officers[35]

The results were immediate and measurable: child Baker Act examinations fell from 38,557 in FY 2020-2021 to 34,234 in FY 2021-2022, an 11% reduction in the first year the law took effect. What this demonstrates is not that mental illness declined; it is that a substantial share of school Baker Acts were never clinically warranted in the first place.[1]

HB 241 (2021) — Parents’ Bill of Rights

House Bill 241, effective July 1, 2021, codified the fundamental right of parents to direct their minor child’s mental health care; requiring parental consent for health care services on minors and prohibiting any state entity from encouraging or coercing a minor to withhold health information from parents. Violations were made subject to disciplinary action and criminal misdemeanor charges. By establishing parental involvement in mental health decisions as a fundamental legal right, HB 241 created the framework within which subsequent Baker Act-specific reforms operate.[36][37]

CS/CS/HB 1557 (2022) — Parental Rights in Education

House Bill 1557, effective July 1, 2022, extended the parental rights framework directly into schools, prohibiting school districts from adopting any policy that blocks parental notification regarding a student’s mental, emotional, or physical health; and requiring schools to actively encourage students to discuss well-being issues with parents rather than withhold information. Together with SB 590 and HB 241, this law closed the legal gap through which students were previously Baker Acted without any parental knowledge or involvement.[38][39]

HB 7021 (2024) — Baker Act Modernization

House Bill 7021, effective July 1, 2024, enacted the first substantive overhaul of the Baker Act in 53 years. Key provisions included:[40]

• Changing law enforcement’s obligation from “shall” to “may” initiate an involuntary examination — giving officers discretion to divert individuals to alternative services rather than automatically Baker Acting them[41]
• Creating the Children’s Behavioral Health Ombudsman for accountability[42]
• Requiring comprehensive discharge planning to reduce repeat examinations[43]
• Prohibiting courts from involuntarily committing individuals with developmental disabilities without a co-occurring mental illness[43]

HB 7021 passed with unanimous 111-0 support in the Florida House and has contributed to a 17% decline in juvenile Baker Acts since implementation.[6][40][44]

Legislative Reform Impact Summary

Section 7: What Actually Works — Voluntary, Community-Based Alternatives

The question is not whether Florida can reduce involuntary Baker Act examinations without causing harm, the evidence above proves it already has. The question is what replaces forced detention as the primary response to mental health crisis. A robust and growing body of research answers that question clearly.

Mobile Response Teams: 80% Diversion Rate Through Natural Supports

Florida’s DCF-funded Mobile Response Teams (MRTs), dispatched 24/7 to de-escalate mental health crises in the community, diverted 80% of individuals from involuntary Baker Act examinations in FY 2023-2024, saving an estimated $12.2 million annually in inpatient hospitalization costs. That diversion rate is not achieved by clinical expertise alone. At the heart of every MRT response is a written Safety or Crisis Plan developed together with the individual and their willing family members, friends, and other “natural supports”; the people already in that person’s life who are prepared to help. MRT protocols require clinicians to meet with the individual and their support network on-site, identify specific family members or friends who can de-escalate the immediate crisis, and list those natural supports by name in a plan shared within 24 hours. Florida DCF’s own governing statute requires MRT services to be “responsive to the needs of the individual and the individual’s family”, and DCF Guidance 34 (2024-2025) explicitly mandates the inclusion of peer and natural supports as a core deliverable of every MRT response. Research on Florida MRTs confirms that the presence of a willing family member or support person is one of the strongest predictors of whether a Baker Act can be successfully averted. The 80% diversion rate is, in most cases, a family working through a crisis together. It is the clearest available evidence that the vast majority of situations currently resolved by coercive Baker Act detention can instead be resolved through voluntary engagement with the people who already care most about the individual in crisis. [45]

Peer-Staffed Crisis Respite: Proven to Reduce Hospitalizations

A peer-staffed crisis respite program studied in New York City demonstrated that in the 12 months following use, participants had 2.9 fewer hospitalizations and $2,138 lower Medicaid expenditures per month compared to a matched control group; a statistically significant, system-level impact achieved with no coercion whatsoever. People experiencing mental health crises reported feeling “more seen, heard, and respected” in peer respite settings than in conventional psychiatric environments, and described these settings as empowering rather than punitive.[46][47]

The original Soteria Project, a non-coercive, peer-staffed, non-medication residential program, was found to be as clinically effective as antipsychotic drug treatment in reducing psychotic symptoms at six weeks, and modified Soteria-type settings have shown that so-called “frequent flyers”, the same high-utilizer population that dominates Florida’s repeat Baker Act data, achieve clinical improvement at least comparable to hospitalized patients, at considerably lower cost.[47]

The American Public Agrees

A September 2025 Washington University survey found that Americans (across party lines) strongly prefer voluntary, community-based care to forced hospitalization. Just 45% supported short-term involuntary hospitalization, and only 40% supported forced psychiatric medication. Community-based programs including crisis hotlines, walk-in centers, and peer-led services commanded strong bipartisan support. The researchers concluded: “Community-based services, including those led by peers, are proven to improve population health and reduce reliance on costly institutional care”.[33]

Section 8: The Ethical and Legal Case Against Coercive Psychiatry

Harvard Law’s Petrie-Flom Center articulated the ethical framework directly: “The strongest ethical challenges to expansion of civil commitment derive not from infringements upon individual autonomy per se, but from an indefensible excess of such infringement when autonomy-preserving alternatives in voluntary community care could be made available”. When effective voluntary alternatives exist, and the evidence above shows they do, continued reliance on coercive psychiatric detention cannot be defended on either therapeutic or ethical grounds.[48]

Florida’s Baker Act Dashboard makes this argument with data. It shows a system that for decades forced hundreds of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of children, into involuntary psychiatric detention each year; produced no measurable reduction in mental illness, generated a revolving door of repeat hospitalizations for the most vulnerable, enabled for-profit facilities to exploit captive patients for financial gain, fell hardest on Black children and people with disabilities, and destroyed trust.

The reforms that have reduced Baker Act examinations in recent years did not do so by improving psychiatric treatment inside locked facilities. They did so by keeping people out of those facilities; by putting parents back in the room, by requiring clinical judgment before detention, by giving law enforcement discretion to choose a different path, and by funding community teams that meet people in crisis with family support and other services rather than handcuffs.

Conclusion: A System That Harms — and a Path That Heals

The Baker Act Dashboard is a window into a system at a crossroads. The numbers it displays represent real people — children handcuffed in their schools, adults cycled through locked units twenty times in a year, families who had no warning, no recourse, and no say. The research is unambiguous: coercive psychiatric detention does not produce therapeutic benefit that cannot be achieved through voluntary community care, and for a substantial proportion of those subjected to it, it makes outcomes measurably worse.

The path forward is not a mystery. Mobile Response Teams and peer-staffed respite centers, have demonstrated the ability to resolve mental health crises, including suicidal emergencies, without forced detention. Florida’s own data show that when parents are given the right to intervene and clinicians are required to assess before detaining, the number of people subjected to forced psychiatric holds drops dramatically and immediately.

The successful legislative changes that have improved crisis care in Florida need to be continued and expanded. The goal is a Florida where no one is being handcuffed by a stranger and driven to a locked facility but instead crisis is met with compassion, community, and genuine care rather than coercive force.

References

1. [PDF] Baker Act Reporting Center Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Report – The Baker Act data are only for involuntary examinations which occur at Baker Act receiving faciliti…
2. Incidences of Involuntary Psychiatric Detentions in 25 U.S. States – Results: All-ages rates (per 100,000 people) of emergency detentions ranged from 29 in Connecticut t…
3. DCF Launches First-of-its-kind Baker Act Data Dashboard – This publicly available dashboard will increase access and transparency among Baker Act-receiving fa…
4. Baker Act Data Collection System | Florida DCF – The Department is launching the Baker Act Data Collection System which will change the way that desi…
5. Baker Act exams on kids continue to drop, but ‘repeat’ exams still … – For years, images of children handcuffed and taken away by police under the state’s Baker Act law ha…
6. Lawmakers told Baker and Marchman act reforms … – The Florida Bar – Since taking effect July 1, 2024, the reforms have helped maintain a 20% decline in Baker Act commit…
7. [PDF] 2024 Annual Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse … – Trends in Baker Act data over the past five fiscal years show a 20 percent decrease statewide in inv…
8. [PDF] 2025 Commission on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder … – Trends in Baker Act data over the past five fiscal years show a 20 percent decrease statewide in inv…
9. IDEAS IN ACTION—It is Well Past Time to Modernize Florida’s Baker … – Likewise, with no post-discharge continuum of care, the Baker Act has become a “revolving door” for …
10. Florida’s Baker Act Has Seized Kids & Adults for Forced Mental … – Involuntary Baker Act Holds By County. From July 2021 to June 2022, 170,048 Floridians were subjecte…
11. The benefits and harms of inpatient involuntary psychiatric treatment – The review found that involuntary inpatient admission was associated with harms including increased …
12. The benefits and harms of inpatient involuntary psychiatric treatment – The review found that involuntary inpatient admission was associated with harms including increased …
13. Innovative trial aims to curb involuntary hospitalizations – Research shows involuntary hospitalizations in Allegheny County increase risks of violent crime, rep…
14. Involuntary Psychiatric Commitment Does More Harm Than Good – Involuntary psychiatric commitment in Pittsburgh left a trail of violence, overdose and suicide, res…
15. A Danger to Self and Others: Consequences of Involuntary … – A look at the impact of involuntary hospitalization on individuals’ risk of danger to themselves or …
16. Investigating the impact of involuntary psychiatric hospitalization on … – Studies of the impact of involuntary hospitalization on subsequent outcomes at follow-up have been m…
17. Trauma Begets Retraumatization through Physical Restraint in … – Physical restraints are commonly applied within PRTFs when a resident is considered to be an immedia…
18. systematic review and meta-analysis – PubMed – Conclusions: The evidence for involuntary out-patient treatment in reducing either admissions or bed…
19. GAO: Evidence ‘inconclusive’ for involuntary mental health treatment – “The GAO report underscores that assessments of assisted outpatient treatment programs/involuntary o…
20. [PDF] How Florida’s Excessive Use of Baker Acts Can Be Harmful to … – 29 This shows that minors are being Baker Acted increasingly more often in Florida, ahead of any oth…
21. Advocates Fight Florida Law Used to Detain Kids in Crisis – Among children who are Baker Acted, Black children 10 and under are disproportionately represented. …
22. A qualitative synthesis of patients’ experiences of re-traumatization … – Participants discussed how trauma resulted from coercive practices, and how past traumas can be revi…
23. Lawmakers Require Parental Notification For Youth Baker Acts … – Florida lawmakers have tried for years to curb youth Baker Acts. This year, with the passage of pare…
24. Advocates Cheer Passage Of Bill Requiring Baker Act Parental … – The Legislature approved provisions requiring parents be notified before their child is sent for an …
25. [PDF] Incorrect Use of the Baker Act at the North Florida/South … – VA OIG – However, through interviews, the OIG learned that VHA, VISN, and system level inpatient mental healt…
26. North Tampa Behavioral Health is cashing in on Florida’s Baker Act – A Tampa Bay Times investigation has found that North Tampa Behavioral makes huge profits by exploiti…
27. Florida Psychiatric Hospital Accused of Cashing in on Baker Act … – The Baker Act allows the involuntary confinement of a person in a mental health facility … The ext…
28. CCHR Florida Urges Inquiry into Psychiatric Hospitals under … – CCHR Florida Urges Inquiry into Psychiatric Hospitals under Investigation for Billing Fraud Continue…
29. $8M Verdict in Baker Act Abuse Case; A Major Win for Victims – In a watershed jury trial, the legal team at Thoele Drach secured an $8 million verdict for a client…
30. Southern Poverty Law Center Reports On Child Baker Act Use – More than 37000 children were sent for involuntary psychiatric exams in the 2018-19 fiscal year. The…
31. Report: Baker Act use in Florida schools is ‘costly and cruel’ – WPTV – Costly and cruel. That’s what the Southern Poverty Law Center claims it found when examining the use…
32. Americans favor voluntary mental health care amid federal push for … – Just 40% favored forced psychiatric medication, 45% supported short-term involuntary hospitalization…
33. [PDF] Analyzing Baker Act Admissions in Davie, Florida – NSUWorks – This study analyzes the admission rates and identifies any relationships to understand further the h…
34. [PDF] SENATE BILL 590 – SCHOOL SAFETY – SUMMARY. Strengthens oversight and compliance on school safety and aligns resources to better addres…
35. DRF Blog: 2021 Florida Legislative Outcomes – … SB 590 – School Safety. Modifies numerous provisions related to school safety by: requiring scho…
36. [PDF] HB 241 Parents’ Bill of Rights SPONSOR(S) – Florida Senate – The bill requires parental notification when a state actor suspects a child is the victim of a crimi…
37. House Bill 241 Establishes Parental Rights for Minors’ Education … – Also, the bill requires parental notification when a state actor suspects a child is the victim of a…
38. House Bill 1557 (2022) – Parental Rights in Education – Florida Senate – Parental Rights in Education; Requires district school boards to adopt procedures that comport with …
39. [PDF] words underlined are additions. hb1557-04-er Page 1 of 7 1 An act … – 1. An act relating to parental rights in education;. 2 amending s. 1001.42, F.S.; requiring district…
40. Florida House Passes Bill Modernizing Florida’s Baker and … – Today, the Florida House of Representatives voted unanimously in favor of CS/CS/HB 7021 – Mental Hea…
41. Timeline of Legislative Changes to the Baker Act – A timeline describing legislative changes from Florida House and Senate Bills regarding the Baker Ac…
42. CS/CS/HB 7021 – Mental Health and Substance Abuse – The bill makes substantive changes to both Florida’s Baker and Marchman Acts by combining processes …
43. [PDF] CS/CS/HB 7021 PCB CFS 24-01 Mental Health and Substance … – The bill modifies the Baker Act and makes significant changes to the Marchman Act, the statutory pro…
44. [PDF] BILL ANALYSIS AND FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT – Florida Senate – The primary goals include reducing the number of repeat involuntary examinations, decreasing the tim…
45. Managing Entities promotes mobile response interventions that … – The Florida Association of Managing Entites officials say the MRTs have diverted 80% of those indivi…
46. The Effectiveness of a Peer-Staffed Crisis Respite Program as an … – Peer-staffed crisis respite services resulted in lowered rates of Medicaid-funded hospitalizations a…
47. Evidence for Peer-Run Crisis Alternatives – Anecdotal evidence clearly shows that the vast majority of mental health consumers prefer peer-run s…
48. Rethinking Mental Health Reform: A case for reviving community … – This model funds round-the-clock crisis care, emphasizes evidence-based practices, drastically reduc…