RISE Community Solutions<\/a>, leaders said they are seeing more young people in crisis.<\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s been an increase in crises for the younger population,\u201d RISE Program Director Anna Nascimento said. \u201cWe have been seeing more and more children coming in at a younger age.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nascimento said access to care remains one of the biggest challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there can be more access to services,” she said. “There\u2019s huge waitlists throughout the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
County leaders said they know what the need is.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get the state of mental health reports. We get all types of data, and we are still seeing that there are gaps,\u201d said Katrese Hampton, a program manager with Orange County\u2019s Mental Health and Homelessness Division.<\/p>\n
Programs like Breakthrough serve about 75 to 100 youth each year, but officials said that\u2019s only a portion of those who need help.<\/p>\n
State data shows the urgency. Baker Act cases among youth in Orange County increased from 1,843 before the COVID-19 pandemic to 2,420 in 2021\u201322 \u2014 a 31% jump. While numbers have started to decline, cases remain a concern for local leaders.<\/p>\n
Officials said expanding services can help prevent those situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe find that when parents feel more educated and more supported, it\u2019s a little less overwhelming,\u201d Hampton said. \u201cThe more the community is aware of what\u2019s available, the less we have to resort to Baker Acts and inpatient hospitalizations.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the additional funding, the county plans to expand services to younger children, including those with neurodivergent needs or on the autism spectrum. The program is also expected to serve up to 100 more families.<\/p>\n
Leaders said the goal is early intervention, helping youth before they reach a crisis point.<\/p>\n
For Swallow, expanding access means more families could get the help she once needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can make an impact on one person\u2019s life, one family\u2019s life, the same way that mine was impacted,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Orange County leaders said they will continue to track demand and adjust funding as needed when more young people seek mental health support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Orange County leaders are investing more in youth mental health, approving an additional $300,000 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[767,3948,6466,4318,3140,274,3949,770,571,2287,4070,115,1335,768,139,141,140,278,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-236467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-community","9":"tag-app-health","10":"tag-app-latest-health-stories","11":"tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","12":"tag-app-local-state-politics","13":"tag-app-top-stories","14":"tag-bryanna-howard","15":"tag-community-news","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-local-politics","18":"tag-mental-health","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-orange-county","21":"tag-orange-county-fl","22":"tag-orlando","23":"tag-orlando-headlines","24":"tag-orlando-news","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}