The US state of Florida is struggling with a youth mental health crisis.
The Baker Act is a law in the US State Florida which allows the state to hold young adults in a mental health facility for 72 hours, with the intention of stabilising them before release.
The Baker Act is so common in the state, it is used as a verb.
Between 2011 and 2016, the number of Baker Acted kids rose by nearly 50 percent, according to the most recent data available from the University of South Florida’s Baker Act Reporting Center.
Grace Point is a mental health facility in Florida where the halls are full of kids at crisis point. At least 10 kids come through Grace Point doors each day.
Chris Ammann has been admitted to Gracepoint, and other local facilities, after he was identified four times as a risk -- once by a school administrator.
Thirty percent of kids in Florida who were Baker Acted will be Baker Acted more than once. Source: Supplied
“I'll just go to school, put on a mask, pretend like I'm happy and I'm OK so people don’t ask me what’s wrong,” Chris said.
“It's hard to answer that question when everything is wrong. So I pretend that I'm happy and tell people I'm OK, but inside I'm not.”
She
Is 72 hours enough?
Chris wants longer-term access to mental health care. But care beyond short-term help is expensive and waitlists are long.
“They are not realising that it’s not going to help if it’s three days or a week, I need longer to get help,” Chris said.
To hold a young adult in Gracepoint for a single night in addition to the complimentary 72 hours costs a parent $700.
“There’s a huge shortage of child psychiatrists, there is a huge shortage of therapists, and that’s probably why we have so many Baker Acts,” child psychiatrist Dr. Kristie Jetter of Gracepoint Wellness said.
The most recent data shows that between 2011-2016, 30 percent of kids in Florida who were Baker Acted will be Baker Acted more than once.
Already this year, there have been more than 3,000 mental health calls to sheriff and police in Hillsborough County alone. More than 400 of those calls resulted in a juvenile Baker Acts.
“We should not even be a part of it. We’re not clinical professionals; we’re not doctors we can’t diagnose and fix what’s going on with the kids,” Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office deputy Stephanie Krager said.
Mental health care beyond short-term help is expensive and waitlists are long. Source: Supplied
School shooting fears
In February last year 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fired with a semi-automatic rifle at a highschool in Parkland, Florida. School guidance counselors tried to Baker Act the 19-year-old shooter two years before the massacre, but clinicians and law enforcement said he didn’t meet the criteria.
Chris posted a photo of a gun on Snapchat of brown handgun sitting on a bed, which he later said was fake. He later said that the gun was fake and he didn’t intend to hurt anyone.
“We had 160 kids not come to school the same day,” said Liz Bretz, the principal of Chris’s school.
Chris later snuck into a neighbour's house and stole a real gun. He was later expelled.
“My concern is, is he going to be the next school shooter,” said Principal Bretz.
