Georgia still hasn't lived up to its part of an agreement with the federal government to shift severely mentally ill residents out of state mental hospitals and into community settings, the Justice Department said in a scathing letter that demanded a corrective action plan by November.
Federal authorities said in a Sept. 23 letter to Gov. Nathan Deal's office that Georgia failed to comply with a number of key tenets of a landmark 2010 settlement with the Justice Department after an investigation into the abuse and deaths of dozens of patients. The probe was prompted by a series of stories in 2007 by AJC reporters Alan Judd and Andy Miller that brought the abuses to light.
Since the settlement was reached, Georgia has established dozens of community services and housing for about 9,000 people with mental illness. And the state has created community support and crisis intervention teams to help others avoid hospitalization.
But the feds said in the 18-page letter that the state hasn't done enough to smooth the transition from state hospitals to community residences. It found the state has failed to strengthen hospital discharge planning, deploy mobile teams to conduct more in-person visits with at-risk residents and provide more services for patients removed from hospitals.
”This is troubling, not only because it reflects non-compliance with the state’s commitments, but because the non-compliance is associated with poor outcomes for individuals served by the state," wrote Judy Preston, a Justice Department litigation chief. "Some of the state’s non-compliance has likely caused preventable deaths.”
The state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities State said it disputed many of the assertions in the letter and that it is developing a response.
"While the state’s obligations in the settlement officially ended on June 30, 2015, the department continues our daily work to provide people with the best possible care in the most appropriate setting to address each individual’s needs," said Angelyn Dionysatos, an agency spokeswoman.
She added: "Despite the ongoing legal process, we maintain our commitment to the health and wellness of the Georgians we serve."
You can read the AJC's series by clicking here. And you can find our latest coverage of the fallout of the settlement here.
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