4 treatment organizations to benefit from drug money seized by Osceola County Investigative Bureau

Four local drug and mental health treatment organizations will be benefitting from drug money taken off the streets by the Osceola County Investigative Bureau (OCIB).

A total of $31,848 was divided up between The Transition House ($10,000), Aspire Health Partners ($9,660), Park Place Behavioral Health Care and the Ninth Judicial Circuit Drug Court ($2,188).

“We have the opportunity today to provide some well needed funds to organizations that really need it within this community,” said Daniel Warren, director of OCIB and who also is a special agent supervisor with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Orlando Regional Operations Center.

 OCIB is a multi-agency task force, which investigates vice, narcotics and organized crime. In partnership with the State Attorney’s Office, the bureau consists of agents from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, Kissimmee Police Department and the St. Cloud Police Department, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Highway Patrol. Through its investigative and enforcement efforts, OCIB is able to seize funds in certain cases. The OCIB Charitable Contribution Committee was developed in an effort to distribute the seized funds taken from mostly drug dealers, in a way that can best serve the community, to include providing funds to drug treatment facilities in order to help residents recover from drug addiction.

“It’s such a collaborative effort in an effort to get rid of and remove the criminal element that plagues sometimes our communities,” said St. Cloud Police Chief Pete Gauntlett.

Here is a little information about each of the facilities:

Aspire Health Partners
Asprire, which several Central Florida counties, including Osceola, is committed to providing individuals and families of Central Florida with compassionate, comprehensive and cost effective behavioral health care services that lead to successful living and healthy, responsible lifestyles, according to it’s mission statement.
Aspire Vice-President of Community Based Services Vice-President Katherine Schroeder said the agency focuses on substance abuse, mental health and homelessness. As far as Osceola County, the money the agency received would be used to provide two specified individuals with a “high intensity” of outpatient care to “get them back on their feet, to help restart lives that very often has been paused at the time addiction entered in.”

The Transition House
The Transition House started as a halfway house in St. Cloud for men struggling with substance abuse and homelessness, and later, grew to serve a variety of clients through outpatient counseling, inpatient residential and re-entry programs. The Transition House also was selected by the Veterans Administration to become a partner in assisting the growing number of homeless male veterans that were living on our streets of Central Florida. It also provides therapy services for children, adolescents, and adults.

Park Place Behavioral Health Care
Park Place Behavioral Health Care is a multi-site facility offering a full range of new and innovative behavioral healthcare services designed to meet the diverse needs it serves. That includes both inpatient and outpatient services.  Park Place also is Osceola County’s Community Behavioral Health provider of adult and children’s mental health and substance abuse services, as well as the county’s Baker Act and Marchman Act receiving facility.
“We’re able to take care of more people now, so I’m thankful for that,” said Park Place President and CEO Jim Shanks about the funding.

 Ninth Judicial Circuit Drug Court
The Court provides review and oversight with swift and effective consequences for violation of program rules as well as incentives and rewards for compliance. Treatment follows a graduated model with constant drug testing and monitoring. Although consequences such as detention may occur, the focus and goal remains to modify behavior in order to eliminate the cycle of substance abuse and recurring crime.

“These organizations that are going to receive the money, it’s going to help them help the folks that need it the most,” said Osceola Sheriff Russ Gibson. “It’s so important to have these organizations to provide wrap-around services for these folks that find themselves addicted to these horrible, horrible drugs. It’s an honor to work hand-in-hand with them.”