Joel EngelhardtFirst batch of contributions include money for Hanley Center Foundation, Rebel Recovery, The Lord’s Place and others.
Palm Beach County unveiled its first recommendations on how to spend $9 million a year from legal settlements with pharmaceutical companies as reimbursement for the opioid epidemic.
Eight groups would get $2.6 million to help people with substance abuse disorder return to substance-free lives. In all the county will receive $122 million plus interest over 15 years.
A countywide advisory committee reviewed the recommendations Thursday, with some members balking over the difficulty for smaller groups to apply. County officials said they’re learning as they go and they would work with smaller groups to try to make applying easier.
The Advisory Committee on Behavioral Health, Substance Use and Co-Occurring Disorders has urged the county to spend the money on person-centered and recovery-oriented care rather than institutional responses that failed during an epidemic that saw thousands die from overdoses.
“We promised that this time it’s going to be different, and this time it wasn’t different,” said Chairperson Rae Whitely, a pastor and co-founder of Trinity Counseling Center. “Now we have to go back and say, ‘let’s work a little bit harder.’”
County Community Services Director James Green pledged to do so.
“We will conduct a session where we take the time to go through more specifically what it is that we’re looking for in the proposal,” Green said. “There’s probably more we can do, and so we’ll continue to seek opportunities to bring more of our grass roots organizations in.”
Where the money goes
Grants were decided based on points awarded by a review committee. The recommendations go to the Palm Beach County Commission on Aug. 19.
Here’s the breakdown of the initial grants:
- Hanley Center Foundation, two grants, $1 million.
- Rebel Recovery Florida, $457,850.
- The Lord’s Place, $350,000.
- Genesis Community Health, $340,000.
- Ferd and Gladys Alpert Jewish Family and Children’s Services of PBC, $150,000.
- FAU Foundation, $150,000.
- NAMI Palm Beach County, $100,000.
- PBC Substance Abuse Coalition, $80,000.
Another $1.6 million remains to be distributed this year. Applications will be sought later this year.
But there’s more. The county set aside $5.4 million of its annual contributions to nonprofits, known as Financially Assisted Agencies, to help recovering addicts find a safe place to live, overcome seemingly innocuous obstacles and get jobs.
Another batch of grants
Grants to nine agencies will be considered by the County Commission on July 8. They are:
- South County Mental Health Center, four grants, $1.8 million.
- Drug Abuse Foundation, two grants, $1.2 million.
- Integrated Healthcare Systems, three grants, $585,000.
- Wayside House, three grants, $506,648.
- The Lord’s Place, $410,000.
- Compass, two grants, $295,000.
- Drug Abuse Treatment Association, two grants, $230,000.
- Jeff Industries, two grants, $160,000.
- Housing Partnership, $147,891.
CONNeCT ties it all together
And that’s not all. The state-backed Southeast Florida Behavioral Health Network unveiled a $5 million, four-year program to assure that recovering addicts and mental health patients get personal help to make sure they are able to, for example, buy and take their meds, get to a doctor and find peer support.
It is called CONNeCT for Coordinated Network for Navigating Care and Treatment.
The county would be a big financial backer as SEFBHN is seeking $2.5 million from the $9 million opioid settlement account. SEFBHN would contribute $1.3 million from the Florida Department of Children and Families as well.
Additionally, as reported this week by Stet News, the Health Care District of Palm Beach County has budgeted $145 million to build a crisis stabilization center, a first stop for mental health and substance abuse patients in need of help. The district board agreed on Wednesday to buy nearly 10 acres northwest of Southern Boulevard and Florida’s Turnpike.
Editor’s note: Reporter and Stet co-founder Joel Engelhardt serves on the board of directors of NAMI Palm Beach County, one of the grant recipients.
Joel is a founder, reporter and editor at Stet News. His award-winning newspaper career spanned more than 40 years, including 28 years at The Palm Beach Post, which he left in 2020. Joel lives with his wife in Palm Beach Gardens. He volunteers on the board of NAMI Palm Beach County and the Palm Beach Gardens Historical Society.
