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Tracy Vandament, 48, Found Dead In Suicide on Palm Coast’s Cimarron Drive

FlaglerLive | July 21, 2017

Tracy Vandament, originally from Oklahoma, had been depressed from going through a divorce and not seeing his children.

A Man Is Found Dead at Palm Coast’s Abandoned Players Club in Apparent Suicide

FlaglerLive | June 9, 2017

Clifford D. Van Gorden, a 92-year-old resident of Palm Coast’s C Section, was found by the club’s old tennis courts with a gunshot wound to the head. He had left a note and was suffering from cancer.

Behind Woman’s Suicide in Flagler Beach, Despair and a Last Evening With Caring Strangers

FlaglerLive | February 2, 2017

Janis Washburn, the 68-year-old Palm Coast resident found dead in the Intracoastal last week, had spent the last three hours of her life with a group of strangers who took her in to cheer her up. She had long spoken of suicide.

Two Suicides in 24 Hours in Flagler as County Officials Seek Renewed Focus on Mental Health

FlaglerLive | January 11, 2017

Steven J. Fortier, 27, of Bunnell, was found dead in the Mondex Tuesday, and 73-year-old William Dessing took his own life Wednesday morning at his Flagler Beach home.

Woman At Center of Suicide-By-Cop Attempt in 2015 Kills Herself With a Gun Halloween Night

FlaglerLive | November 2, 2016

Palm Coast’s Stacy Culotta is the 37-year-old Palm Coast resident who 13 months ago had attempted suicide-by-cop as she pointed a gun at three Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies in her yard at 8 Pine Brook Drive.

Florida Universities Seeking $14.5 Million Extra To Meet Spiking Demand for Mental Health

FlaglerLive | September 19, 2016

Universities saw a 48 percent increase in demands for counseling and other mental health services, and an increase in emergency or crisis visits, involving issues like severe depression, acute anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

Stewart-Marchman-Act Foundation Raises $129,000 for Adolescent Care Facility

FlaglerLive | August 9, 2016

Proceeds benefit the Huger Adolescent Campus Project, which includes major renovations of SMA’s facility on Tiger Bay Road to create a new Adolescent Campus that will re-imagine what it means to deliver an exceptional experience for a child going through a difficult time of life.

Gun Violence And Mental Health Laws, 50 Years After Texas Tower Sniper Murdered 16

FlaglerLive | August 6, 2016

Six months before Charles Whitman took aim from that tower he visited a school psychiatrist, and admitted while there that he had a violent fantasy of going to the top of the tower with a deer rifle and shooting people.

Prince’s Reminder: Opioid Epidemic Intensifies But Steps to Curb It Face Challenges

FlaglerLive | May 15, 2016

There is broad consensus on the need for more treatment options, more education, more careful prescribing by doctors. But there’s still much debate about the details—and funding–for each of those steps.

Suicide, Now 2nd-Leading Cause of Death for Young Floridians, Seen as Public Health Threat

FlaglerLive | May 6, 2016

While suicide is increasing for nearly every age group, it’s now the second-leading cause of death for Floridians aged 25 to 34, according to the state Department of Health Vital Statistics, and the third-leading cause of death among youths aged 10 to 24.

Survey Puts Homeless Total in Flagler-Palm Coast at 104, But Undercount Likely

FlaglerLive | April 13, 2016

The 2016 census of the homeless population in Flagler-Palm Coast was a dramatic decline from 2015, but also very likely an under-count. The majority of homeless people who have no shelter at all are in Palm Coast.

“We Live Without My Son”: A Mother’s Story of Her Teen’s Suicide Frames Town Hall Meeting

FlaglerLive | February 2, 2016

Barbara Coxwell, who lost her 15-year-old son to suicide in 2013, and School Board Chairman Colleen Conklin, led the virtual town hall as a first step in a countywide effort to broaden attention to suicide-prevention across all age groups.

Firing a “Sponge Grenade,” Flagler Deputies Defuse a Would-Be Suicide-By-Gun After Hours of Negotiations

FlaglerLive | December 17, 2014

Flagler deputies after hours of negotiations near the Palm Harbor overpass in Palm Coast Wednesday morning stopped a man from killing himself with a .38 by firing so-called “less-lethal” munition.

Regrettable Holiday Ritual: Spike in Calls to Alzheimer’s Hotline as Families Grasp Changes

FlaglerLive | November 29, 2014

Visiting with relatives over the holidays may raise questions about the physical and cognitive health of family members. Although some change in cognitive ability can occur with age, serious memory problems are not a part of normal aging. Recognizing the difference between normal aging and more serious problems can help you identify when it may be time for you to make the call or see a doctor.

Flagler Sheriff’s Deputy Tasers 80-Year-Old Man With Dementia: He Was Wielding a Knife

FlaglerLive | October 3, 2014

A Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy on Thursday used his Taser stun gun against an 80-year-old man suffering from dementia as the man refused to put down a butcher knife as he sat in his back porch. The man had earlier allegedly threatened members of his family.

When Guns and Mental Health Intersect: Cops Seize Arsenals on Two Occasions in 5 Days

FlaglerLive | May 20, 2014

For the second time in five days Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies have seized, with consent, two unrelated individuals’ weapons for safekeeping after incidents involving excessive grief or hallucinations, and fear among cops or relatives of the individuals involved that they could harm themselves if their weapons were left in their possession.

Raising Hope: Indian Trails Guardian Angels Lift Awareness of Teen Suicide and Depression

FlaglerLive | April 17, 2014

The Guardian Angels, one of two Indian Trails Middle School Service Learning groups doing projects in conjunction with Palm Coast’s annual Arbor Day celebration on May 3, are raising money to dedicate a walkway at the Children’s Memorial Garden in Waterfront Park.

Four Palm Coast Baker Acts in 24 Hours: A Day in the Life of Flagler Sheriff’s Deputies

FlaglerLive | March 6, 2014

In barely a 24-hour period between late Monday afternoon and the early evening of Tuesday (March 3 and 4), deputies were involved in four commitments under the Baker Act, each one is illustrative of the variety of mental health situations deputies are confronting, compelling them to make the determination between simply diffusing a situation, making an arrest or carrying out a Baker Act.

A 7-Year-Old Girl Is Baker Acted at Belle Terre Elementary; It’s Not Punishment, District Says

FlaglerLive | March 4, 2014

The Baker Acting of a 7-year-old girl at Belle Terre Elementary last week, following a report of her allegedly lacerating the dean of students with thumb tacks, is one of three or four Baker Acts of students in the district every month, though they’re usually older. The district defends the Baker Acts as a necessary last resort that addresses underlying issues, and that must not be seen as retribution or punishment.

Baker Acts, Age and Social Responsibility: Sheriff Manfre’s Alert to Emerging Perils and Possible Solutions

FlaglerLive | February 24, 2014

In a broad-ranging discussion before the Palm Coast City Council, Flagler Sheriff Jim Manfre described a deteriorating mental health landscape affected by age and other stresses, but also pointed to mental health courts and other ways to address the growing problem without turning to cops and jails.

Matanzas and Flagler Palm Coast High Learn Of Suicide of Senior Alexandria Rodriguez

FlaglerLive | February 19, 2014

On Tuesday, the grandfather of Alexandria Rodriguez, an 18-year-old senior who’d attended Matanzas High School last year and Flagler Palm Coast High School until Thanksgiving, came to FPC to retrieve her two younger sisters and inform the administration that Alex, as she was known, had committed suicide that morning.

5 Years After 7-year-old Gabriel Myers’s Suicide, Psychotropic Drugs Still Overprescribed in Foster Care

FlaglerLive | February 11, 2014

At the time, about 5 percent of all U.S. children were treated with psychotropic medications, but in Florida’s foster care system, 15.2 percent of children received at least one such medication. Of these, more than 16 percent were being medicated without the consent of a parent, guardian or judge. Not much has changed.

In a Surprising Shift, County Commission Finds Money for 2 Jail-Diversion Programs After All

FlaglerLive | September 5, 2013

Flagler County commissioners Thursday evening agreed to take on a $100,000 mental-health jail diversion program previously paid for by the state, and a $60,000 pre-trial release program they had opposed in earlier workshops. Both shifts took place during a hearing devoted to approving next year’s tax property rate.

Florida’s Surplus Adds Dollars to Services From Mental Health to Rape Crisis Centers

FlaglerLive | May 23, 2013

People with disabilities, domestic and sexual violence programs, mental health and substance abuse programs, juvenile justice and children’s services all got bigger budgets for the first time since the recession began.

“Mental Retardation” and “Retarded”
Will Be Excised from All Florida Laws

FlaglerLive | April 11, 2013

Florida lawmakers are moving toward erasing the terms “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” from myriad state laws, as the word “retarded” has become widely viewed as offensive to people with disabilities.

For Children’s Advocates, Scott’s “Florida Families First” Budget Blurs Reactions

FlaglerLive | February 2, 2013

Backers of early childhood education and an expansion of Medicaid were disappointed, educators were guardedly happy about raises, and others applauded more money for prevention services to keep youths out of the juvenile justice system, plus $145,360 for juvenile health and mental health.

Deadly Force Averted as Deputies Confront Another Troubled, Knife-Wielding Man

FlaglerLive | January 28, 2013

Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies drew their guns, then their Tasers, but ended up firing neither as Erik Flores, a 32-year-old resident of Lindsay Drive in Palm Coast, was wrestled to the ground and arrested in the latest confrontation between a potentially violent, mentally ill man and police, just five weeks after another 32-year-old man was shot and killed for wielding a machete at Flagler deputies.

Blaming the Gun-Violence Epidemic On Mental Illness Doesn’t Begin to Resolve It

FlaglerLive | January 23, 2013

With a startling personal revelation of her own, Milissa Holland argues in her latest column that if mental illness is to be a focus of gun control, it must be much better defined–and far more de-stigmatized. Otherwise, it’s a shield behind which politicians will do nothing.

Time to Get Serious About
Mental Health in Florida

FlaglerLive | December 21, 2012

Florida ranks near dead last nationally in the level of expenditures for front-end community-based mental health services. Let’s not be penny wise and pound foolish when so many precious lives are at risk, argues Paula Dockery.

Timothy Daniel, 17-Year-Old Student, Takes His Life With a Gun