Georgia’s mental health services get own department

Gov. Sonny Perdue wants to reorganize Georgia’s social services agencies, creating a separate department to oversee the perpetually troubled state psychiatric hospitals and other mental health services.

In a news conference today, Perdue endorsed recommendations from a study group to create three new departments from the two that now provide social and health-care services: the Department of Human Resources and the Department of Community Health.

Perdue’s plan, which will require the General Assembly’s approval next year, would create:

• A Department of Behavioral Health to provide mental health and substance abuse services.

• A Department of Health, which would encompass public health services, regulation of health care providers and the administration of Medicaid and PeachCare programs for the poor.

• A Department of Human Services, essentially a streamlined version of the current DHR. The new agency would oversee services for people with developmental disabilities, programs for the elderly, child support enforcement and the child welfare and foster care systems of the Division of Family and Children Services.

“Today marks the beginning of a positive change as we work to improve the health care of every Georgian in these vital areas,” Perdue said.

Perdue wants the new agencies to begin operating next July 1. But he said it’s too early to say whether the new structure would require more or less money than the state spends now — roughly $3.8 billion a year.

“We will be fleshing out these funding issues over the next few months,” Perdue said. Repeatedly, Perdue said he hopes the new agencies will be “more efficient and more effective.”

Perdue did not address a U.S. Justice Department investigation of state psychiatric hospitals; already, investigators have threatened to sue the state over conditions that have caused patients’ unnecessary deaths. The investigation began in response to articles in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that revealed suspicious deaths, neglect and abuse in the seven state facilities.

But Perdue said the need to improve the quality of care in the hospitals helped fuel the reorganization plan.

“We’ve seen positive movement,” he said. “But I believe this is an appropriate next step — [creating] an agency with a singular mission for mental health.”

He added: “We think more focus will give us better outcomes.”

State Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Buford), a member of the reorganization panel, said the new mental health agency is the most important component of the proposed changes.

“We have reached the bottom of the barrel with mental health,” Unterman said at the governor’s news conference. With a separate mental health agency, she said, “we can concentrate and focus on rebuilding.”

Rep. Mark Butler (R-Carrollton), also a member of the reorganization panel, said the governor’s proposal opens “a new era for mental health” in Georgia.

“I believe this is a great step forward,” Butler said. “It is by no means the answer. It is a start.”

Perdue also said that consolidating hospital services or turning over some facilities to private operators may be “part of the solution.” But he declined to say whether he plans to propose closing any of the hospitals.

“That’s not a topic that’s within the scope of this press conference,” he said.

The new human services agency would be led by B.J. Walker, now the DHR commissioner. DCH Commissioner Rhonda Medows would run the new health department. Perdue did not announce a leader for the new mental health agency.

Dr. Charles Nemeroff, chairman of the department of psychiatry at Emory University School of Medicine and a member of a separate panel studying state mental health care, said after the news conference that the governor should appoint a mental health professional — a psychiatrist or psychologist — to head the new agency.

Noting that Perdue pledged to build the nation’s best mental health system, Nemeroff said, “Nothing would make us happier.”