Gold Dome Live is moving!
Our new spot will allow us to get the news to you even faster and make commenting easier. Please bookmark the new site and sign up for our rss feed:
http://blogs.ajc.com/gold-dome-live/
AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2007 > March > 27 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USSenate approves mental health commission
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Senate today voted to create a commission that would study ways to improve care in Georgia’s troubled state psychiatric hospitals.
The measure, Senate Resolution 363, passed unanimously without debate on “crossover day,”; the deadline for bills to have cleared at least one chamber to be considered for final passage during this legislative session.
Sen. Johnny Grant (R-Milledgeville) filed the resolution in response to a series of articles in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which revealed a pattern of neglect, abuse and poor medical care in the seven state hospitals that contributed to at least 115 suspicious deaths since 2002.
The resolution would create a legislative commission that would spent two years looking at the state hospitals’; chronic overcrowding and understaffing, at diverting more patients to community-based services and at requiring insurance plans to provide the same coverage for mental health care as for other medical treatment.
The panel - consisting of legislators, a judge and citizens representing hospital patients and law enforcement agencies - also would consider reorganizing the Georgia Department of Human Resources, the agency that operates the state hospitals.
Advocates for people with mental illness applauded the Senate’s vote, which sends the measure to the House for consideration.
“I really do believe that if they do this commission the right way, they will actually see how disjointed the mental health system is,” said Ellyn Jaeger, of the Georgia chapter of Mental Health America. “It’s in serious need of fixing, and you can’t fix it until you understand it.”
Later today, the House may take up additional bills aimed at revamping the mental health system.
One, House Bill 535, would set up an ombudsman who could investigate complaints about treatment in state mental facilities and a 15-member committee to oversee that work. A subcommittee that included at least one psychiatrist and two other physicians would review deaths in state hospitals and other mental health facilities, as occurs in Illinois and New York.
Lawmakers created the ombudsman’s position in 2000 but have never approved a budget for the office.
Rep. Mark Butler (R-Carrollton), the House bills’ sponsor, said he hopes to work with the Senate during the remainder of this year’s session to craft a single mental health bill that both chambers find acceptable.
Lawmakers are working on the bills as the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department considers whether to investigate conditions in Georgia’s state hospitals, as advocates requested after publication of the Journal-Constitution articles in January. Federal intervention in other states has forced improvements in care, hospital construction and renovations costing millions of dollars. Justice Department officials have said they are reviewing the request for an investigation.
Read the AJC series: Danger and Death in Georgia’s Mental Hospitals
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Health Care
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Harold A. Maio
March 27, 2007 1:19 PM | Link to this
Another state (deja) has appointed (vu) another commission to study and make suggestions on how to improve its state mental institutions, called “hospitals.” About every generation, since 1820, such “commissions” (deja) have been seated (vu) , none achieved. Cosmetic changes occurred, were exaggerated, and the abuses continued.
Undaunted by history, each generation has made the gesture.
Rosa did not seek cosmetic change, better upholstery in the back of the bus, cleaner separate but equal seats did not appeal, what she sought was an end to the “separate but equal” pretense of state governments. When states finally recognize that separate but equal approaches to health are the problem, perhaps the “seating of commissions” will end, and change will occur.
Harold A. Maio Board Member Partners in Crisis Former Consulting Editor Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal Boston University Language Consultant UPENN Collaborative on Community Integration of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities Home: 8955 Forest St Ft Myers FL 33907 khmaio@earthlink.net 239-275-5798 day/night
By Steve Johnson, Ph.D.
April 3, 2007 1:06 PM | Link to this
In July 2003, President Bush’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health made its final report. The report made clear that effective and cost-effective treatments exist. Unfortunately, the Commission also found that the system designed to provide services to people who need mental health care is “fragmented and in disarray, lead(ing) to unnecessary and costly disability, homelessness, school failure, and incarceration.”
As of July 2005, few concrete steps had been taken to realize the Commission’s goals or implement its recommendations.
In July 2005, the Campaign for Mental Health Reform put out its call to action entitled: Emergency Response - A Roadmap for Federal Action on America’s Mental Health Crisis. The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, The National Mental Health Association, and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill lead this partnership with the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and many other groups to push reform.
Now, in Georgia, we are facing the same facts President Bush’s commission disclosed: a fragmented and dysfunctional system. While a legislative commission is good politics, it would be wise to contact any “state roadmap” with the above mentioned “federal roadmap” then pray for bipartisan, statemanship to implement true reform.