Miami-Dade County Chairman Anthony Rodriguez discussed the critical importance on the commission’s Tuesday vote of the Miami Center for Mental Health and Rehabilitation in an interview with The Floridian this week.
The center, if approved at 2200 NW 7th Avenue, would provide key mental health diversion care to incarcerated individuals needing treatment around the area.
“We, for a very long time now, have been dealing with two main issues that go hand in hand that this facility should be able to help with, and that is, of course, mental health, which is the whole premise of this property,” Rodriguez said.
The facility, long awaited according to Chairman Rodriguez, would be seven stories and 181,000 square feet, and include a crisis stabilization unit, residential treatment, and transitional housing under a $50M renovation. Miami-Dade residents voted on building a facility back in 2004.
Rodriguez attributed the facilities delays to “half-baked” planning, including accountability measures and auditing criteria by previous administrations for the stall. Presently, Rodriguez emphasized bringing funding from two to three years to help with the center’s operations, while adding safeguards to the current proposal.
“We should have some solid proof whether this concept works or not. It’s first of its kind, certainly in the state, but really in the country,” Rodriguez noted.
Chairman Rodriguez, on the Miami-Dade Commission since 2022, indicated he would also address substance abuse on mental health in the item, which is expected for Tuesday morning.
“A lot of these patients have dual diagnosis, they’re both addicted to drugs, they have drug abuse issues and substance abuse, and also mental health. I don’t think that we should limit it to just one. I think it should be expanded to both, especially since they go hand in hand,” Rodriguez sad.
Rodriguez denoted he did not expect the proposal to face opposition.
“We’ve got a seventh floor to this building that is still undeveloped, and there was a lot of talks of what we should do with it. “One of my proposals is that the seventh floor be put out to bid for an outpatient facility, and that outpatient facility to see patients both with mental health and substance abuse,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez added the outpatient facility would also provide critical funding to the whole facility, on top of its main purpose, and mitigate the flow of recidivism commonly occurring in people going through substance abuse struggles. Recidivism is a relapse some individuals go through in their road to recovery, leading to possible rearrest or reconviction.
“We say that we’re going to guide them to the right places and support, but if there’s no outpatient facility that we can stay involved with [for] that patient, make sure that they come back, whether it’s weekly or monthly, and check in and see an outpatient therapist and get the right treatment long term, and I’m talking about long term, past, 12 months of treatment, then I think that’s where you see recidivism,” Rodriguez warned.
“The outpatient procedure is entirely not just warranted, but actually necessary to make this entire facility and program successful,” Rodriguez added.