SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – The mental health partnership in Seminole County that did so much good for so many people in crisis is no more.
Beginning in 2021, News 6 reported extensively on the partnership invented by the Lake Mary Police Department called “M.H.I.G.” — the Mental Health Intervention Group.
By all accounts, MHIG was addressing the needs of people struggling with their mental health, so they stayed healthy, out of the hospital and had fewer run-ins with police.
So what happened?
Jamie Grover, executive director of the Sanford-based Special Needs Advocacy Program, a MHIG provider and a key component of the partnership, said MHIG - all volunteer - could not survive without funding and no one was willing to provide the funding.
“It crushes my heart that that program was not funded because we received a lot of referrals from our police department,” Grover said. “Most of them were at-risk youth that were repeat offenders.”
Grover, through his nonprofit SNAP, counsels children in crisis and specifically special needs children who had prior interactions with police or hospitals. Many of those children came to him through MHIG.
“Oh, I think it’s [MHIG] needed so badly,” Grover said. “I can tell you in the short amount of time that we were involved with that we had over 23 referrals. I was seeing 18 kids a week. That’s 18 hours of my time, plus about a half-hour post-hour to do paperwork. And I can tell you right now, I still see nine of my original kids [that came to him through MHIG].”
Grover was just one component of the Mental Health Intervention Group. It was a Seminole County-wide partnership of counselors, doctors, pharmacists, food pantries, social workers, Churches and synagogues all brought together by the Lake Mary Police Department to fill any need for anyone in mental health crisis, including children in crisis.
The way it worked is the partners, like Grover, were notified by Lake Mary Police or South Seminole Hospital when someone in crisis came into the hospital or in contact with police.
The MHIG partners were calling clients, making at-home visits, delivering food, even mowing lawns if those were the underlying needs. MHIG was addressing the stress, keeping clients out of the hospital and avoiding confrontations with police.
But all of that costs money. Everyone involved, including Grover, was donating their time and resources which, according to Grover, could not continue, especially the coordinating — making the referrals, calling, arranging, and following up.
So Grover and SNAP, his special needs child counseling center, offered to do it by hiring a full-time coordinator for $50,000 per year. Grover asked Lake Mary to provide the $50,000.
The Lake Mary Police Department declined Grover’s offer.
A spokesperson told News 6 MHIG disbanded because of “internal conflict” and the police department is trying something different. The department’s Behavioral Services Unit will essentially replace MHIG, to be modeled after the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office’s successful mental health program. But Lake Mary’s new program is still in the “early stages” and “a lot of matters are still being discussed and fine-tuned,” according to the department spokesperson.
Grover said since MHIG disbanded, children in crisis have fallen through the cracks.
“I know we when we stopped, when we finally said we can’t do it anymore, I know there were probably about 30 or 40 individuals that were still in the case file that had not been seen yet,” Grover said. “And to this day have not been seen.”
Grover said MIGH disbanding “crushes his heart” because his $50,000 request to hire a coordinator was a drop in the bucket compared to the cost to the children, their families and the community.
“They [the children who did not receive counseling] could have gone back in the system,” Grover said. “I’ll guarantee you, back in the system.”
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