TAMPA, Fla. — Numbers are proving to be a powerful lens into Florida's mental health crisis.
According to the USF Center for Baker Act 2023/24 Annual Report, in fiscal year 2023-24 there were more than 161,000 Baker Act exams conducted in Florida. Just over 18% of the involuntary exams, nearly 30,000, were on children.
The Baker Act is a state law that allows designated professionals to initiate a 72-hour involuntary psychiatric exam on someone they deem to be a threat to themselves or others.
The numbers, which show that one in five of the Baker Act exams this past year were on a child, is actually down from the previous two years.
If you are looking for some good news here, taking population growth into account, the percentage of Baker Act exams on kids last fiscal year is the lowest it’s been since the pandemic.
Five-year history of Baker Act exams on children in Florida (USF Center for Baker Act Reporting 2023/24 Annual Report):
2023/24: 29,612
2022/23: 33,685
2021/22: 34,234
2020/21: 38,557
2019/20: 35,965
“I think, in general, we are doing a better job with our children, getting to them younger and younger,” said April Lott, Executive Director of Directions for Living, a mental health treatment center in Clearwater where kids who are committed under the Baker Act can get treatment after they’re discharged.
“It is unfortunate that, often, we get children after a Baker Act, when we believe if we had gotten them before the Baker Act, we might have been able to prevent that traumatic experience,” Lott explained.
These are traumatic experiences we’ve documented for the past five years, as parents and caregivers described their own children’s Baker Act experiences.
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For years, images of children handcuffed and taken away by police under the state’s Baker Act law has inspired cries of overuse, abuse and the need for reform.
And while these latest numbers show reforms, including mobile crisis response teams and more funding for early treatment, are having some positive impact, it’s a different set of numbers that has Lott still so concerned about how the Baker Act is being used on children.
According to the report, in some cases, children are being baker acted twice, three times, four times or even more. Last year, nearly 400 Florida kids were committed under the Baker Act law 6 to 10 times.
“Potentially, that means a child has attempted to die by suicide six to 10 times. That's a startling number,” Lott said. “What's not working? Why are we not able to hold them tight enough that they wouldn't have a future attempt to take their life?"
See below the official 2023/24 Annual Report from the USF Center for Baker Act:
