Florida mental health care providers will receive $3 million from BP pledge to state, federal agencies

From the Palm Beach Post in Florida:

Florida mental health care providers will get $3 million of the $52 million that BP pledged to state and federal agencies August 16, to provide behavioral and substance abuse services to residents along the Gulf Coast.

In a proposal to BP on July 30, Florida's Department of Children and Family Services had requested $5.6 million for mental health services. On Monday, DCF Secretary George Sheldon called the $3 million grant "a start toward helping Floridians who are beginning to feel the stress associated with this disaster."

The grant "will not prevent the Department from seeking additional funding as needed," Shelton said.

Other agencies receiving money include: the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Heath Services Administration, $10 million; Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals, $15 million; the Mississippi and Alabama mental health departments, $12 million each.

Among those hoping for financial support include Lutheran Services of Florida, which quickly responded to the needs of children along the Gulf with its Camp Beyond the Horizon. The program teaches coping skills and give children a place to talk about their fears.

"What we are finding is an increase in fear of everything — the weather, other disasters, losing people, said Beth Deck, the northwest regional director who helped organize the camps. "Worry, worry, worry. They worry about people losing their jobs. They think all the animals have died."

During the summer over 150 kids attended the free, week-long camps in Pensacola, Deck said.

Many of the children hide their fears, afraid to add more stress to their parents, Deck said. Some of the children, already veterans of one disaster in their young lives, attended a similar program, Camp Noah, after hurricanes Ivan and Katrina, she said.

Money will allow the camps to continue on the weekends during the school year, she said: "Every kid in the community is impacted."

News of the funding pleasantly surprised the mental health community, which has watched BP consistently deny injury claims — especially those for mental health problems.

"This is a good downpayment," said Michael J. Fitzpatrick, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Fitzpatrick wrote a terse letter to BP in July, telling Doug Suttles, BP's Chief Operating Officer, that BP has a "moral obligation to help finance mental health services."

"It gets back to the stigma surrounding mental illness," Fitzpatrick said. "This recognizes that mental health is an important variable in what happens in a disaster."

The emotional damage caused by the spill received little attention until June 23, when an Alabama charter boat captain — who had recently lost his business because of the spill -- shot himself to death aboard his vessel.

Steve Picou, a sociologist at the University of South Alabama who lives along the Gulf and for 20 years has studied the communities affected by the Exxon Valdez, said his research has shown that Gulf communities are already having "severe problems." Picou said he was "very surprised" by BP's announcement, since similar requests were made of Exxon after the Valdez spill but Exxon "would not have any part of it."

BP posted a two-page announcement about the funding on its web site on Monday.

"We appreciate that there is a great deal of stress and anxiety across the region and as a part of our determination to make things right for the people of the region, we are providing assistance now to help make sure individuals who need help know where to turn," Lamar Kay, the new president of BP America said in the release.