The coming days will bring the scheduled end of Georgia’s five-year agreement with the feds to improve its care for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities. A state official said Thursday that Georgia is “waiting to hear’’ from the U.S. Department of Justice about what the federal agency plans to do after the June…
The boy, nearly 1 year old, has started walking around his family’s apartment. These early wanderings by a child are a challenge for any parent, but in this case, they can be especially dangerous. The boy has hemophilia A, a disorder that prevents blood from clotting properly. Any bumps, scrapes or bruises that he gets can…
The state has shelved its attempt to coordinate care of Medicaid beneficiaries who are elderly or disabled. The Georgia Department of Community Health said Tuesday that it was not proceeding “at this time’’ with soliciting bids from potential vendors to operate the program. The agency’s statement, made in an email to GHN, follows the General…
“Supported employment” is a key term in the developmental disabilities and mental health field. It helps match individuals to job opportunities in typical workplaces, letting them work alongside people without disabilities. In an new GHN Commentary, Kathy Keeley, executive director of All About Developmental Disabilities, urges state lawmakers to include more money for supported employment….
For individuals with developmental disabilities, the typical choices after finishing high school — getting a job or going to college — are difficult to accomplish, if not impossible. There are thousands of Georgians with developmental disabilities, and the unemployment rate for this group is more than 85 percent. As the 2015 Georgia General Assembly begins…
Georgia health officials acknowledge that they won’t meet a June 30 deadline — agreed to with the federal government — for moving people with developmental disabilities out of state-run hospitals. Frank Berry, commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, said at an agency board meeting Thursday that the state will move people from hospitals…
Sports have proved to be a lifeline for Army veteran Jacques Swafford. Overwhelmed by depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after an on-duty accident in 1991, Swafford attempted suicide several times, but survived. “I felt like my world was just coming to an end,” said Swafford, who was injured in a Humvee wreck during Army training in California, shortly before…
An Augusta facility for the developmentally disabled has been certified by the feds after the state corrected significant problems with patient safety there. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a federal agency, has notified the state that the Gracewood Developmental Center is now in “substantial compliance’’ with U.S. regulations. The Georgia Department of …
A state agency says Georgia consumers’ personal data has not been compromised so far in the wake of a theft of a laptop computer that contained some people’s health information. The computer was stolen from the vehicle of an employee of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities who was attending a Clayton County…
State health officials have major work ahead to meet a July 2015 deadline with the federal government on improving care for Georgians with mental illness and developmental disabilities. That’s a key message of a report this month from an independent reviewer regarding the state’s five-year settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, reached in…