A Polk County organization that serves people experiencing homelessness is being inundated with mental health patients, but the shelter is not equipped to care for them.
In body camera video from Jan. 10, you can hear a wheelchair-bound man tell a Lakeland police officer that he did not ask to be taken to Talbot House Ministries.
“Did you want them to displace you from where you were?” The officer asks the man.
“No, I did not,” the man responds.
The man was discharged from a mental health facility in Wesley Chapel.
“A nurse came out and helped him out of the wheelchair. Helped him put his wheelchair in the back. Helped me get him in the car,” said an Uber driver.
The Uber driver told the officer the healthcare facility paid for an Uber to drop the patient off at the homeless shelter in Lakeland.
“Seven drop-offs in one week. That’s crazy,” said Deborah Cozzetti, Talbot House Ministries director of programs.
Cozzetti told ABC Action News that Talbot House is seeing a significant increase in hospitals bringing mental health patients to the shelter without the patient’s or the shelter’s consent.