Politics
Commission makes recommendations to improve practices at Circles of Care
Better connections between patients and staff, judges and providers, and other community-based coalitions will lead to better health outcomes.
Those are the results of work by an independent commission put together to review safety and patient care at Circles of Care. Former U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon chaired that body after it was put together in June. Now, Circles of Care is making the commission’s recommendations public.
“It was an honor to do this work and both identify opportunities for improvement and recognize already-existing excellence,” Weldon said. “Circles of Care plays a critical role in serving the needs of this community, and I remain confident in their ability to continue doing so in the future.”
Circles of Care is a leading behavioral health provider in the Space Coast region. Among the changes recommended by the independent commission is to add time for patients and staff to connect, such as through art, music, outdoor activities and other efforts to help shift the treatment space to a more upbeat environment.
Additionally, the commission pushed for criminal court and mental health court Judges to be able to directly connect those eligible to case management services, ensuring a bridge between jail release and reentering treatment with providers such as Circles of Care.
The commission worked for free as they made their recommendations, which Circles of Care sought to implement in real time when possible.
“These were professionals who didn’t have to say ‘yes’ — but they did, because they care about the vital role Circles performs in our community,” said Circles of Care President and CEO Stephen Lord. “They brought deep expertise and a selfless dedication to the table, and their work points the way to an even better future for those we serve.”
The commission also called on community members to step up and build coalitions that provide for more staff at care facilities. Commission members also noted a need for patients to more easily find employment to get a normal life back following treatment for mental health and substance use disorders.
Safety is key as well. The panel suggested that additional screening procedures would be beneficial, as would expanding training partnerships with local law enforcement to ensure incidents are handled with professionalism while keeping all of those involved safe.
“Circles of Care is the primary provider of emergency psychiatric care for individuals in crisis in Brevard County. Caring for our most vulnerable residents — from pediatric patients to senior citizens — is a responsibility that we take very seriously,” said Rob Salonen, Chair of the Circles of Care Board of Directors.
“Engaging in the peer review process exemplifies our overall commitment to excellence in care, and is reflective of how passionately we embrace our core mission of caring for Brevard County’s families and residents.”
The full report is viewable below.
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The policy expansion is retroactive through November 2024.
The House is expanding its paid parental leave policy when employees have a baby or adopt a child, House Speaker Daniel Perez announced.
The policy takes effect immediately and applies retroactively for parents who took leave from Nov. 19, 2024, onward.
Going forward, full-time salaried employees will get up to seven consecutive weeks of paid parental leave for maternity leave after childbirth.
The House will also offer mothers and fathers paid care and bonding leave for up to two weeks within one year after a child’s birth or adoption. The care and bonding leave “may be granted on an intermittent basis” and can’t be taken during the 60-day Legislative Session. It requires supervisor approval as well, Perez’s memo said.
It’s an expansion from the current policy, which Perez explained in the memo.
“As has been the policy of the House, an employee who is the father or mother of a natural born or adopted child will continue to be granted parental leave for a period not to exceed three months total,” Perez’s memo said.
“The employee may include in the request for parental leave one or all of the following types of leave: (new) paid parental leave when allowable; up to 240 hours of accrued sick leave; annual leave; compensatory leave; personal holiday; and leave without pay.”
To help retroactively, the House Office of Administration and Professional Development will be contacting employees to talk about their situations.
The majority of Americans don’t get paid time off for childbirth, according to a 2019 Kaiser Foundation study.
A few major employers in Florida are offering the benefit to new parents.
Publix, for instance, began offering full- and part-time employees paid parental leave in 2022.
“We frequently review our benefits to continually offer a comprehensive package to our associates,” Publix spokesperson Maria Brous told Florida Politics at the time the policy was unveiled.
Politics
Ben Albritton on the future of property tax proposals in the Senate: ‘We’re still measuring’
With eight proposals on eliminating or cutting property taxes moving through the House and Gov. Ron DeSantis maintaining that none go far enough, many are looking more and more to the Senate for signs of what, if any, change could be coming.
As he’s done in months past, Senate President Ben Albritton is advocating for a cautious, unhurried approach.
“Honest to goodness, we’re still measuring,” Albritton told reporters Monday. “We’ve looked at the House proposals, and every one of those has a certain amount of cost to it and a certain amount of impact to Floridians.”
Albritton said that while the Senate is committed to delivering financial relief to Floridians in the form of property tax cuts or rollbacks, he and others in the chamber are cognizant that many core services at the local level stand to be adversely affected if it’s done carelessly.
“Every Floridian … depends on the fact that if they call 911, somebody comes to their place, somebody comes to help them,” he said. “We’ve got to be thoughtful about that.”
Asked whether the Governor has unilateral authority to redistribute funds derived from well-to-do counties like Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Orange to 29 fiscally constrained, mostly rural counties — as DeSantis has proposed doing — Albritton’s answer was more definitive: “No.”
“The Florida Legislature (is) given the power to appropriate. The Governor is certainly the chief executive. He has the ability to veto or be supportive. He has, I would say, the ability and the opportunity to be able to share perspective in his budget request and when he lays out the budget,” he said.
“The opportunity to backfill lies in the Legislature.”
On the idea of cash-strapped counties asking the state for funding annually that they’d otherwise generate locally, Albritton said it’s “certainly a concern.”
“Do I love the idea? Of course not,” he said. “But I (believe) affordability is a challenge, and providing some relief in the property tax space is a great way to do that, and especially for (homesteaded) Floridians … that’s great.”
Albritton pushed back on the idea that eliminating property taxes would lead to a “gold rush” of wealthy transplants to the Sunshine State, stressing that he is “optimistic” about the prospect despite its potentially negative effects.
“But it’s not that simple,” he said. “And that’s one of the things that I’m finding in that here again: Don’t take down a fence until you know why it was put up.”
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