Georgia’s jails house a high percentage of people with psychiatric illnesses, according to sheriffs across the state. But an under-the-radar bill that’s still alive in the final days of the General Assembly seeks to move more of these people into treatment instead of behind bars. About a dozen mental health courts exist now in Georgia,…
The job of state disability services ombudsman remains unfilled six months after becoming vacant. The Georgia ombudsman fields complaints and promotes the rights of people with mental illness and those with developmental disabilities or addictions. The previous ombudsman, Jewel Norman, produced a report last year that cited problems in Georgia’s mental health system. The continuing…
Public health spending, Medicaid eligibility, and the planned closing of a Rome hospital were major topics as two health agencies gave budget presentations Thursday to state legislators. David Cook, the new commissioner of the Department of Community Health, told the joint House-Senate Appropriations panel that Medicaid needs a new eligibility system prior to the expansion…
Making bizarre statements to a professor and fellow students. Posting an Internet photo of himself holding an assault rifle. Predicting that he would soon either be in jail or dead. That scenario played out four years before the Tucson rampage. The individual involved was a graduate student at the University of Georgia in Athens. The UGA…
The sweeping revamp of Georgia mental health system will get its first big test in Rome. State officials said Thursday that the state-run psychiatric hospital in that city will close June 30. The shutdown of Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital will reflect a cost-savings push by state government. It also follows Georgia’s agreement in October with…
Gov. Nathan Deal’s budget proposals, unveiled Wednesday, contain financial pain for Georgians in government insurance programs and those who treat them. Medical providers such as physicians will receive a 1 percent cut in payments for treating Medicaid and PeachCare patients in fiscal 2012. That reduction, which does not affect hospitals, was not as harsh as anticipated….
1. Health care reform passes Congress Like it or not, the passage of the Affordable Care Act was the single biggest health care event since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s. It had immediate effects on Georgia, such as establishing a high-risk insurance pool for people with pre-existing conditions, and allowing children…
Gov. Sonny Perdue said Tuesday that with its recent mental health agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, Georgia is ”not crossing the finish line.’’ Instead, “we are beginning a journey’’ toward better services for people with mental illness, developmental disabilities and substance abuse problems, he said. Perdue admitted the state made mistakes in addressing problems…
A little-noticed state report says an independent review team found poor medical care in the deaths of 23 patients at Georgia’s mental hospitals during the past fiscal year. The report, from Georgia’s disability services ombudsman, also shows that the state’s mental health system remains plagued by other major problems, despite more than a year of…
Three years ago, Alan Judd and I wrote a series of articles in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that detailed numerous (and often deadly) problems in the state-run mental hospitals. We also reported that thousands of patients were discharged to homeless shelters, where they would be likely to cycle right back into the overcrowded, understaffed hospitals.