TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A woman reached out to 8 On Your Side wanting to draw attention to Florida’s mental health system. She said her son has a mental health condition that led to his arrest, and she feels more could’ve been done to help him.

“He’s brilliant, he’s creative, he’s highly intelligent. When he is unmedicated, when he is prolonged without treatment, he becomes a danger to himself and to society,” Kelly Mullis said about her son, who she did not want to name to protect his privacy. “My son is not the sickness, my son is everything that he is outside of the sickness, but the sickness lives with him.”

The 23-year-old was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder in 2021.

Mullis said it’s been a challenge navigating the condition, but she’s fought to help him. She said her son has been Baker Acted six times, twice in the last 30 days, and said she doesn’t feel her son is getting the help he needs from the system.

“It doesn’t matter if it happens twice or three times in 30 days, if he’s a danger to himself or society, they let him go very quickly,” Mullis said.

Paul Figueroa, an attorney who deals with Baker Act cases explained why this happens.

“Once the person is stabilized and no longer meets that criteria, they shall be released,” Figueroa said. “We do have liberty interests that we’re not just locked up and placed away because of a mental illness.”

Figueroa said risk protection orders and court systems to address the individual’s treatment are available. Mullis said she wants to see policies that would enforce the tracking of patient treatment and medication, storing emergency contacts, and support for caregivers, like herself.

“If we could stop pulling people out of the water and go up stream and find out why they’re falling in for once,” Mullis said. “I need for this to work for my son and I need for this to work for my community.”

Through this trying journey, Mullis has been writing a book where she speaks with law enforcement, clinicians, and people working in the prison system about the mental health system and the solutions to the problems they see.