Articles & News

January 29, 2010

Agencies reach deal on mental health funding

The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

Jan. 28--The two agencies locked in competition to oversee mental health and substance abuse services in central and southwest Florida have agreed to a compromise and will share $414 million in state funding.

Rivals Central Florida Behavioral Health Network and SunCoast Community Services will sit together at a negotiating table with Department of Children and Families officials to hammer out a three-year contract, according to DCF Suncoast Region Administrator Nick Cox.

Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon sent both organizations a letter Friday announcing the new negotiations. Under the agreement, the behavioral health network would be the managing entity, while SunCoast would be a subcontractor.

The deal comes less than four months after a DCF negotiating team voted 7-2 to award the entire contract to SunCoast, a group created by Lutheran Services of Florida.

The leader of Manatee County's leading service provider, Manatee Glens, is cheering the new agreement.

CEO Mary Ruiz, who also is a board member with the network, worried that service providers like hers would suffer if SunCoast, a newly created entity with ties to for-profit organizations, was awarded the entire state contract. Manatee Glens annually receives about $11 million in state funding.

Ruiz said she is "relieved and still shaken that community assets like us, our fates could be changed so quickly. We're too important to our communities."

With the new contract, the state is seeking to create a "managing entity," a single nonprofit group charged with administering the mental health and substance abuse funds for the region. Central Florida Behavioral Health Network has administered DCF programs for 10 years.

The contract, which begins July 1, covers the Suncoast Region, which includes Manatee and 10 other counties from Pasco south to Collier.

Cox said the network and SunCoast have agreed to work together on 12 specified areas, the most important of which are community involvement in programs and the integration of child welfare into mental health and substance abuse services.

"It was a proposal they came up with, and I enthusiastically endorsed it to the secretary," Cox said. "I am excited about it. I think this is what we needed.

"Lutheran Services came to the table with some great innovations, and Central Florida has been doing a good job administering our programs for 10 years. I think we've got a pretty nice marriage here."

In October, a DCF negotiating team voted to award the contract to SunCoast. As a compromise, DCF officials floated a plan that would award SunCoast a contract for Manatee and other southern counties, allowing the network to maintain the northern counties.

Ruiz helped lead the network's fight to reverse the state's decision and objected to splitting the region. She said a Jan. 4 meeting between DCF officials, Manatee Glens representatives, Manatee County Sheriff Brad Steube, schools Superintendent Tim McGonegal and Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, D-Sarasota, helped the state understand the need to keep the region intact.

"They were listening. I think what they realized is they underestimated the complexity of the issues," Ruiz said.

Cox agreed, saying his administration is more closely tied to the foster care side of the department and appreciated learning more about substance abuse and mental health.

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