Florida will spend $58 million more next year on mental health care, with $16 million addressing staffing and safety deficits in the state’s mental hospitals, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports.
Most of the remaining money will go to two competitive grant programs that communities can apply for if they agree to provide matching funds, according to the Herald-Tribune.
One of the programs will divert the mentally ill from the criminal justice system and the other will help communities create central receiving facilities to ensure patients get the help they need when they enter the mental health system, the paper reports.