Approximately 4% of people on the Space Coast suffer from serious mental illness, including mental illness disorders, serious mood disorders, and severe major depression.
More mental health inpatient beds are needed, care and Palm Point behavioral health provide services insurance for these inpatients or lack of that, people seek help and get help plays a role in.
There is a lot of talk about mental health in Brevard. So we recently asked Natalie Hussein of Nami Brevard (National Alliance for Mental Illness) to fill us in the truth and trends regarding the mental health of our community.
From Nami’s perspective, there are some of the things Hussein told us. We whipped it out to 5 things you think you should know:
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Mental Health Care Resources: Brevard County had a population of 657,000 in 2024. NAMI estimates that 4% of residents have serious mental illness. We’re talking about 26,280 people across the space coast. Serious mental illnesses include psychotic disorders, severe mood disorders, and severe major depression. Beds Needed: Looking at national standards and Brevard’s numbers on mental illness, the county needs 325 beds to treat people with serious mental illness. 50 beds are required for each of the 100,000 residents. What we have: Brevard has 190 beds, divided into two crisis stabilization units. They are located in Melbourne-based Circle of Care and at Palm Point Behavioral Health in Titusville. The county lost 24 beds in May 2022. (That hospital is currently part of Orlando Health.) Insurance Conundrum: For those who do not have health insurance, it often becomes a barrier for people with mental health problems to receive the necessary care. . In Brevard County, 17% of people aged 18 to 64 do not have health insurance, while 7% of children aged 0 to 18 have a shortage of health insurance. . Some states are high-performance and are expanding their ability to serve people in need of mental health care. Florida ranked 46th in spending, not a high-performance state in the region. Florida is the third largest state with 23 million residents. It costs $36 per resident. Compare that with Maine. Maine has 1.7 million residents and spends $360 per person on mental health care. “We hope to see an increase in mental health care access in the near future, as there was an increase in spending signed by the governor last year.”
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This report is supported by Journalism Funding Partner Grants. Mental health reporter Sarah Paulson can be contacted at spaulson@floridatoday.com.
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