Suncoast Center

Adult integrated services provides an array of evidence-based medical and non-medical behavioral health treatment crucial to an individual confronting significant mental health and substance abuse challenges in their lives. The treatment approaches are recovery-oriented and focused on the needs of the individual. Medical treatment includes psychiatric evaluations, consultation, individual therapy, medication management, and laboratory services. Non-medical services include biopsychosocial assessment, treatment planning, individual and group therapy, crisis intervention, education, family support, rehabilitation services, and referral services. During 2021-2022, of adults receiving services 89% demonstrate improvement in the domains of reduced depression, reduced anxiety, and decreased symptoms of suicidal thoughts or behaviors.

Family integrated services provides children under 18 and their family members with crucial services that respond to mental health and substance abuse challenges. These services include both medical and non-medical services. Provided on an outpatient model, services include mental health assessment, psychiatric evaluation, medication management, individual counseling, group therapy programs, family support therapy, and resource assistance. Clinical services utilize evidence based models that are family-centered and solution focus, and built upon the child's strengths and needed resources. During 2021-2022, of the children receiving services, 75% demonstrated improvement in the domains of reduced depression, reduced anxiety, and decreased symptoms of suicidal thoughts or behaviors.

Total family strategy provides in-home, prevention and early intervention programing and services for families at risk of becoming involved social services, dependency, and behavioral health programming. The programming builds upon families helping families, and increases social supports and confidence within the families. Through the use of social supports, families increase their self-sufficiency. Our early childhood services (for children 0-5 demonstrating severe behavioral or developmental needs), and intensive family services provide services within the children's natural settings of home and school, involving all appropriate supports for the youth. In addition, we have therapists who are stationed within the school settings, providing therapy to youth and their families. During 2021-2022, our family services programing resulted in 99% having no report of abuse and/or neglect during participation of child abuse prevention services, and 98% having no new verified report of abuse and/or neglect for a period of 12 months after case closure.

Suncoast Center provides a broad range of psychiatric and individual, family, and group therapy services designed to develop support resources, and to resolve emotional and behavioral problems. Services can be office or home-based. Suncoast Center's goal is to provide solutions for life's stressors to families and individuals in our community. With a staff of more than 200 highly qualified professionals, including medical doctors, psychiatrists, registered nurses, licensed therapists, case managers, support staff and volunteers, Suncoast Center is dedicated to helping clients meet the challenges they face on a daily basis. This dedication is demonstrated in the excellent outcomes we've achieved. During 2021-2022, Suncoast Center provided 269,119 services to over 21,000 individuals throughout pinellas county.

Suncoast Center is pinellas county's recognized children's advocacy Center (cac). The cac is a community partnership of dedicated agencies and people committed to preventing child maltreatment and child welfare involvement, assist with school readiness, and empower children to succeed in school. During 2021-2022, our children's advocacy team provided services to 887; conducted 835 child abuse/neglect exams and provided 1,335 services to children and families.

Suncoast Center is pinellas county's only certified sexual assault services provider certified through the Florida council against sexual violence. Services provided include a 24-hour sexual assault hotline, sexual assault victim examinations (save), forensic evidence collection, counseling, support groups, education, awareness and preventive services. During 2021-2022, sexual assault services responded to 869 rape crisis calls, conducted 175 sexual assault exams and provided therapy services to over 2,072 trauma victims. We serve victims of trauma, regardless of whether they have experienced recent or past trauma. We have special connections to the local schools and universities in order to best connect our education and awareness campaigns.

Suncoast Center is one of the largest utilizers of long-acting injectable antipsychotic medication in the state of Florida. Long-acting injectable antipsychotic medications can be more efficient and effective for some clients. They can increase medication compliance, improve daily functioning and stability, and improve long-term outcomes for severely and persistently mentally ill clients. We have repeatedly seen positive life changing impacts on individuals' lives and societal integration through the use of this and other interventions.

The agency is accredited by the commission on accreditation of rehabilitation facilities (carf) and holds a substance abuse license from the department of children and families.

While services may appear to be traditional outpatient therapy or medication management, they are actually embedded with the very effective culture of feedback informed treatment which assists both client and staff in working together to ensure good engagement, connection and positive outcomes. Trauma informed care and culture is also embedded in all our services because we know how recognizing the impact of, and treating trauma improves the outcomes for our clients.

Beyond our office walls, at our many sites throughout pinellas, we bring the care to our clients in a variety of ways. Thirty percent (33%) of our services are in community locations such as jails, client homes, schools, or embedded into other community locations. We have therapists housed in ten elementary schools and in the health clinics of seven high schools.

Suncoast Center believes in community collaboration. Suncoast Center coordinates the pinellas behavioral health system of care workgroup, a coalition of more than 50 different local agencies and entities. The workgroup convenes in order to analyze gaps in the coordination of care and implement improvements to our system of care. The behavioral health system of care members have also convened local agencies to embark on a collaborative process improvement effort to prevent suicides in pinellas. The zero suicide initiative has harnessed collaboration across sectors of mental health, health, schools, law enforcement, and housing. As part of this collaboration, 31 partners signed an agreement to work on suicide prevention. The zero suicide initiative has resulted in area agencies agreeing to common screenings, assessments, safety plans and suicide safe care pathways for treatment. Agencies have implemented these core processes into their electronic record systems and are continuing to address area of metrics reporting, common messaging, awareness and education, and advocacy.

Suncoast Center is a leadership member of "the wellness connection" which seeks to collaboratively build a centralized access point for behavioral wellbeing assistance with 11 primary partners and linkages to behavioral health services in pinellas.