Coast Behavorial and Rural Health Team up for New Kreisman Campus

Dorothy Kreisman surveys the banner for the new Campus for Integrated Healthcare that bears their name.

SARASOTA – Over the years, Dorothy and Norman Kreisman have radically changed mental health treatment in the Sarasota area. In 1991, the Kreismans' efforts resulted in the construction of Sarasota County's first and only public Baker Act-receiving facility, also known as the Crisis Stabilization Unit. On July 28 of this year, Coastal Behavioral Health opened its Kreisman Campus for Integrated Healthcare at 1451 10th Street, Sarasota.

The integration of preventative care from Manatee County Rural Health Services, Inc. and mental health from Coastal Behavioral Healthcare, Inc. will greatly benefit the low-income seriously mentally ill individuals in Sarasota.  The Kreisman's daughter, who learned of her own affliction with a serious mental illness while attending George Washington University, could not easily adapt to a working environment, personalizing the immense need for such services.  

Psychologists have known for more than a decade that there is a direct link between mental illness and poverty. Individuals with serious mental illness are also more likely to have any of the chronic physical disorders than those without mental illness. People with schizophrenia, in comparison to those without a mental disorder, are 4 times more likely to be unemployed or partly employed. This pain also carries over to the children of those afflicted with poverty or mental illness.

Rural Health CEO Mickey Presha and the Kreismans cut the ribbon at the new facility

A recent article in the Sarasota Herald Tribune stated that the seriously mentally ill, on average, live about 25 years less than those without illness. This statistic was taken from a USA Today article published in May 2007. New research released in May from the Maudsley Hospital, exposed that people afflicted with serious mental illness can actually expect to live up to 18 years less than the national average.  However, 69 percent of Medicaid members have a history of mental illness and the debilitating effects transfer across generations of the afflicted.

Worldwide, children who have a mother suffering from depression are five times more likely to be malnourished. According to a February 2011 publication in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, ”children whose parents are in poverty or who have experienced severe economic losses are more likely to report or be reported to have higher rates of depression, anxiety, and antisocial behaviors.“

The four-year collaboration between Coast Behavioral Healthcare, Inc. and Manatee County Rural Health Services, Inc. in Sarasota, FL will be funded by a $2 million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The partnership between the two organizations will also transcend to Arcadia, FL where MCRHS physicians will offer integrated psychiatric and primary care at Coastal Behavioral outpatient center.