The sponsor of a medical marijuana bill said Monday after a three-hour legislative hearing that the proposal must get significant revisions before it can move forward in the Georgia General Assembly. State Rep. Allen Peake (R-Macon) said he was unsure of the specific changes needed to House Bill 885 that would give Georgia children, who…
The 26 community boards that offer services to Georgians with behavioral health problems and developmental disabilities would face new oversight under a state Senate bill introduced this week. The legislation follows recent trouble connected with one such community service board in Coastal Georgia. A September state report on Gateway Behavioral Health Services last year said its…
A state health agency board gave initial approval Thursday to offering care coordination services to 450,000 Medicaid beneficiaries who have disabilities or are elderly. The proposal for the “aged, blind and disabled’’ population comes as part of the state’s move to improve care and reduce spending. This beneficiary category represents roughly 28 percent of Medicaid…
A report on a troubled health services organization in Coastal Georgia says its operation has been riddled with financial irregularities and management problems. Gateway Behavioral Health Services, which has an annual budget of more than $30 million, has a deficit of close to $4 million. It also had $1.4 million in accounts payable at the…
Strong-arm tactics. Improper use of state funds. Retaliation over a lawsuit. Those are some of the accusations flying around a sharp-edged conflict between a state agency and a Coastal Georgia health services organization. But it’s not been just talk. The state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) recently took control of Gateway Behavioral…
The state is continuing its transformation in behavioral health services by creating “crisis centers” in Albany, Thomasville and Valdosta. Georgia officials are also seeking to lease empty buildings on the historic Milledgeville hospital campus, which has been downsized as the state moves away from a hospital-based system of care for people with mental illness and developmental…
Shannon Allen recently received a disturbing letter from the occupational and speech therapy services provider that works with her three special-needs kids. The organization, Walker Therapy of Gainesville, “told us they’re going to have to drop my children,’’ Allen says. The reason is that the organization won’t agree to sign a new contract with a…
Last week, the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities announced that its psychiatric hospital in Thomasville will close Dec. 31. The closing of the Southwestern State Hospital continues the restructuring of the state’s services for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities in the wake of Georgia’s landmark 2010 agreement with the U.S. Department…
A state agency Wednesday announced that its psychiatric hospital in Thomasville will close by the end of the year. The state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities told GHN that Southwestern State Hospital currently has a patient census of 116, divided between people with mental illness and development disabilities, and those housed in the facility’s…
A man who lived for years in a crude shelter in the woods is now housed in an apartment. A young woman who was institutionalized for a dozen years now lives in her own home, and is using the bathroom by herself for the first time in her life. The two individuals’ transitions are among…