Is the Mental Health System Broken?

Some feel the Amy Kern case is a tragic example of what can happen when the mentally ill don't get the treatment they need.
She sought help in Georgia but did not get it. Experts tell us it's unlikely that would happen in Palm Beach County. However, we met one woman who feels it could.
Linene, who asked that we not use her last name, says her mother is mentally ill and has been Baker Acted hundreds of times over the past thirty years, but has really never gotten the help she needs.
"It's a failure in the system," Linene said.
She says her mother is bipolar and now lives with a daughter. She's been treated and released time and time again, but with no real improvement. And Linene blames the staff at mental health facilities.
"Some of them do care, but some of them don't care. They become numb. I think they are just indifferent. They do their job and that's it," Linene said.
The Amy Kern case is shows what can happen when the mentally ill are turned away.
After Kern tried to check herself into a psychiatric hospital in Georgia, authorities say she drove to south Florida and gunned down two people Saturday. One in Palm Beach Gardens, another in Jupiter.
"I think this is a tragic example of where the system didn't work," said Marjorie Silberman of the Mental Health Association of Palm Beach County.
She says the county's mental health system doesn't get the funding it needs.
"The resources are tapped. There's just so much money to go around. Just so many beds available," Silberman said.
Palm Beach County has seven facilities that treat the acutely mentally ill, including Columbia Hospital and St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm beach, Oakwood Center, and the V-A Medical Center to name a few.
Linene says something has to be done, and quickly, to make sure mental health workers do their job and fix a person's problem, before simply treating and releasing them. Otherwise, we'll get another person like Kern who goes too far.
"There has to be people responsible for doing their job," Linene said.
There are an estimated 50-thousand mentally ill people in Palm Beach County, according to Silberman.