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Gov. Scott Directs DCF to Enhance Collaboration with Local Law Enforcement in Each Florida County

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Governor Rick Scott today signed Executive Order 18-81 directing the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) to enhance collaboration with law enforcement offices in each Florida county to improve the coordination of behavioral health services for individuals in need. Following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Governor Scott convened emergency meetings with education officials, mental health experts and law enforcement to develop strategies to make our schools safer and improve mental health treatment services in Florida. Today’s Executive Order complements the provision established in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act (SB 7026) which increases the sharing of information between sheriff’s offices, the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), DCF, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and any community behavioral health providers to better coordinate services and provide prevention or intervention strategies.  Read more about the new law, signed by Governor Rick Scott on March 9th, HERE.

Governor Scott said, “After the horrific shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I met with legislators, members of law enforcement, school administrators, teachers, mental health experts, and state agency leadership to find solutions which make sure our schools and communities are safe. Last month, I proposed a major action plan, and then signed into law the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act to protect our schools, bolster out state’s mental health system of care and keep guns away from dangerous people. Today, to enhance the policies I just signed into law, I am using my executive authority to make sure we are supporting those most in need while protecting Florida families.

“In issuing this executive order, I have directed DCF to closely collaborate with local sheriffs’ offices and police chiefs in each county to further increase communication between these agencies and increase access to substance abuse and mental health services in every community. My goal is to ensure DCF is integrated in every local department, so we have a person working hand-in-hand with law enforcement and dedicated solely to being a crisis welfare worker focused on repeat cases in each community. We will continue ensure that all Floridians have the opportunity to get the treatment they need.”

The Executive Order takes five major steps:

  • Directs DCF to convene quarterly meetings in each of DCF’s six regions with sheriffs and police chiefs in the region, the behavioral health managing entities and service providers, school officials, and other stakeholders to improve communication, collaboration, and the coordination of services;
  • Mandates DCF, the Department of Juvenile Justice, and sheriffs’ offices to improve cost sharing and integration of funding;
  • Allows DCF to include sheriffs’ offices and local law enforcement agencies as eligible recipients of the criminal justice reinvestment grants;
  • Directs DCF and the managing entities to ensure sheriffs or their designee have a seat on each managing entities’ board of directors; and
  • Establishes enhanced collaboration between DCF, managing entities, and sheriffs’ offices to ensure access to mental health and substance abuse treatment services for those released from county jails.

To view Executive Order 18-81, click HERE.

WINGS initiative aims to improve guardianship through collaboration

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Groups and individuals with a stake in the protection of Floridians who may need or who are currently under legal guardianship are coming together to seek common solutions and better serve the needs of the state’s most vulnerable.
A grant from the American Bar Association’s Commission on Law and Aging and the National Center for State Courts made a Working Interdisciplinary Network of Guardianship Stakeholders, or WINGS, possible in Florida, led by Florida’s courts.
There are 3.5 million Floridians aged 65 or older. A quarter of the state’s population is projected to be aged 65 or older by 2030. Increasingly, Floridians seek help from the State Courts System when they or their loved ones need their interests protected. Guardianship cases for adults have increased steadily, with more than 7,000 cases to establish guardianship filed in the 2015-16 fiscal year. At the same time, these cases have become increasingly complex.
Many state agencies and private organizations target policy and practice issues related to guardianship from their own perspectives and work to advance solutions for specific issues. The WINGS effort aims, instead, to collaboratively map a comprehensive strategy for improved processes and increased effectiveness.
Circuit Judge Jose R. Rodriguez, who works in the Orange County Probate Division on Guardianships and Mental Health cases in the Ninth Judicial Circuit, spoke to those who gathered for an initial WINGS event. He used the Declaration of Independence to encourage attendees.
“Out of the many, we are one. That’s what we have here, the many,” Judge Rodriguez said. “But we come together as one … to brainstorm ideas on how to manage the issues we have both with the aging population, called the Silver Tsunami, as well as with the disabled; intellectually, developmentally and acquired.”
An initial meeting of stakeholders brought together representatives from Florida courts, state executive agencies, private organizations, and advocacy groups. Representatives from the Department of Elder Affairs, the Department of Children and Families, the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council, Disability Rights Florida, the judiciary, and the state court administrator’s office, among others, gathered for the initial meeting in Tallahassee.
Among key issues WINGS sets out to address are insuring adequate protections from exploitation, data collection, education about alternatives to guardianship and restoration of rights, and a review of guardianship statutes. The WINGS effort is complementary to the Supreme Court’s guardianship workgroup, established in 2016 to improve judicial procedures and better protect vulnerable people – children, adults with developmental and mental health disabilities, and the elderly.
“Florida will be positioned to embrace systems change within the guardianship process, avoid unnecessary guardianships, and better identify ways to address financial exploitation,” said Florida State Courts Administrator PK Jameson of the advantages and aims of the WINGS initiative.