Sharon Hix and Brenda Jeffers regularly come to a Dalton day program for people with mental illness. Each has medical problems in addition to mental health issues. Hix, 65, is pre-diabetic, has high cholesterol and a thyroid problem. Jeffers, 52, is battling a cholesterol problem and attempting to beat her smoking habit. Both women are…
State officials, in an abrupt shift, are moving toward creating a case management system for hundreds of thousands of Medicaid beneficiaries who are “aged, blind and disabled.’’ This summer, the Department of Community Health, citing the uncertainty about Medicaid’s future, stepped away from a proposal to place beneficiaries residing in nursing homes, as well as those…
Nearly all Georgians agree that mental health treatment can help people lead normal lives. But just 58 percent say people are caring and sympathetic to those with mental illness. And adults with symptoms of mental illness are even less likely to agree that people are caring and sympathetic. Georgians’ attitudes toward mental illness are similar…
The state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities has approved a fiscal 2014 budget that includes reductions to service providers, the closing of a nursing home and probable job cuts. Like other state agencies, DBHDD is required to cut its budget 3 percent under orders from Gov. Nathan Deal’s Office of Planning and Budget. The state has…
Atlanta is the home of a new autism “center of excellence,’’ thanks to a federal grant of more than $8.3 million to Emory University. The funding from the National Institutes of Health will launch a collaborative research initiative involving the Marcus Autism Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Department of Pediatrics at Emory School…
Georgia has made considerable progress in improving services for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities, a new report says. The report by an independent reviewer, which was released last week, tracks the steps the state has taken since it agreed to revamp its services in an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. Georgia…
Two years ago, Georgia reached a landmark agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to revamp its system of care for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities. The Justice Department involvement followed articles in the AJC that reported more than 100 suspicious deaths of patients occurred in Georgia’s mental hospitals during a five-year period. Dr….
Frank W. Berry III was named Friday as the next commissioner of the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. Berry, currently CEO of View Point Health in Lawrenceville, replaces Dr. Frank Shelp, the agency’s first commissioner, who announced his resignation last week. Berry will assume his new duties Aug. 11. He will take…
For weeks, the rumors swirled about Dr. Frank Shelp – that he would soon be gone as head of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. The speculation irritated those in the mental health and developmental disabilities community who supported Shelp’s work. Other people, though, wanted him gone. The rumors turned into reality Friday,…
The commissioner of the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities is resigning. Dr. Frank Shelp has been the only commissioner of the agency since its creation by the General Assembly in 2009. He will leave the position in August, a press release said Friday. The governor’s office will conduct a search for his…