Advocates fighting for a triage center in Lee
By _MICHELLE L. START Florida Weekly Correspondent

COURTESY PHOTO Kevin Lewis, the CEO of Southwest Florida Addiction Services, discusses the mental health triage project with Fort Myers Police Major Douglas Baker at a recent luncheon.

Lee County desperately needs a triage center, according to officials with Southwest Florida Addiction Services, The Salvation Army and Lee Mental Health Center Inc.

Triage is a system used to ration limited medical resources when the number of people needing care exceeds the resources available. In this case, the agencies want the triage center to serve people needing mental health care and substance abuse programs.

A recently completed pilot program funded by a $200,000 grant from the state legislature found that a triage center works in Lee County.

Police officers with the Fort Myers crisis intervention team referred 137 people who did not meet the criteria for a Baker Act and could not be arrested to the program during the seven-month pilot. Of those, the program was able to offer services to some 95 people and successfully linked 58 percent of those referred to services.

The team was unable to provide services to 42 people who had been referred to the pilot program.

"That is an extremely powerful number to me," said Jennifer Spencer, the Lee Mental Health team member. "Those are people who could have been helped if we had a triage center."

Kevin Lewis, executive director of SWFAS, said the grant just covered the personnel to run the program and some supplies, but was not enough to rent a location to run the program. As a result, when officers made a referral, they had no place to bring those who needed assistance. Instead, the pilot team members went into the community and tried to find those who needed help after the referral was made.

"We are very pleased with the success of the project so far," said Lewis. "These are people who otherwise would have wound up in our emergency rooms or jails, which are not equipped to manage the needs of those with substance abuse issues or who have a mental illness." n

Services provided (some patients received more than one service)

>>21% referred to substance abuse treatment >>27% linked to temporary shelter >>19% linked to permanent housing >>21% linked to mental health services