By the time they walk through the crisis center doors, some patients have attempted suicide; others are suffering from drug addiction or paranoid schizophrenia. All need help.
A new 16-bed crisis stabilization unit in Flowery Branch is the first of a spate of new community mental health services the state began rolling out in North Georgia this month -- part of a $70 million-plus push to move mentally ill and developmentally disabled individuals out of state hospitals.
The effort stems from a precedent-setting agreement reached last fall between the state and the U.S. Department of Justice. It followed an investigation into the abuse and deaths of dozens of patients in state-run mental institutions; starting in 2007, a series of Atlanta Journal-Constitution articles revealed the abuse.
The state’s first challenge is how it handles closing Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital in Rome this summer, including providing enough housing help for those who need it, said Ellyn Jeager with advocacy group Mental Health America of Georgia. “If they do it right, they have this incredible opportunity to mirror what they did in Rome in other areas of the state.”
Typically less costly than treating someone in a hospital, community services can help avoid emergency room visits and jail stays by helping people with mental illness live independently and prevent crisis situations, advocates say.
Lack of housing was an issue with the shutdown of adult mental health services at Central State Hospital in Milledgeville last year, Jeager said. More energy seems to be going into planning the Rome closure -- which is planned for June 30 but could change -- than in Milledgeville, which is still lacking in services, she said.
Every time Sally Smith headed home from visiting her autistic son, Johnny, at the Milledgeville hospital, she said it was like leaving him in prison. It felt dark and foreboding, and Johnny once ended up in the hospital after another patient kicked him, she said.
But after years of her son's destructive behavior and multiple hospital stays, Smith found a group home in Griffin where Johnny finally started to thrive. Today, the 22-year-old is applying for jobs and hopes to buy his own double-wide trailer home -- a goal is mother believes is possible if not now then someday.
"He's made leaps and bounds," she said.
The state was forced by the Justice Department to close the Milledgeville facility quickly, but it has six months to build up services in North Georgia, said Tom Wilson, a spokesman for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. The Rome facility is the only state hospital currently planned to close.
The state plans to spend $1.2 million on housing and employment resources in the North Georgia region in fiscal year 2012, and will keep a close eye on the housing situation, Wilson said.
In fiscal year 2010, more than 160,000 Georgians received community services through the department, including 19,000 with developmental disabilities, and nearly 9,600 were treated in state hospitals, he said.
As part of the Justice Department agreement, the state will target 9,000 individuals with severe mental illness over the next five years to transition those in hospitals into community settings and support others who are frequently readmitted or end up in jail. Developmentally disabled individuals -- who have lifelong mental or physical impairments such as cerebral palsy or autism -- also will be moved out of institutions.
The state is pumping more than $20 million into the Rome region for community services in preparation of the hospital's closing.
The facility has about 55 mentally ill patients, many of whom stay only a few days and have a home to return to, with less than 10 expected to need long-term care in a hospital, Wilson said. Nearly 50 individuals with developmental disabilities are transitioning to homes in the community, he said. Another 70 patients who have been put there by the courts will be moved to other state facilities.
Along with the crisis unit in Hall County, the department will open another crisis unit in Floyd on June 1, increasing the number of units in the region to five. It also will launch three support teams to treat people in the community and contract with community hospitals, Wilson said. The new services will provide up to 125 people a day with treatment closer to their communities, he said.
At the new crisis unit in Flowery Branch, which was full within four days of opening on April 1, staff work to make sure patients have support once they leave, said Cheryl Barnet, CEO of Avita Community Partners, a quasi-governmental nonprofit that runs the facility. The crisis unit is in a commercial-industrial area, not a residential neighborhood.
They connect people with long-term counseling, housing, jobs and other community resources, Barnet said. “We start discharge plans the minute they walk in the door.”
People need gainful employment and a social network, said Sherry Jenkins Tucker, executive director of the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network. “People recover in communities. You can’t get on with your life when you’re stuck in a hospital.”
Tucker added that she’s glad the state is moving forward with its commitments under the Justice Department agreement.
Starting in 2007, a series of AJC articles called “A Hidden Shame” revealed that mentally ill patients died from abuse in state institutions. The Justice Department conducted an investigation, and the state eventually created a separate mental health agency.
Smith, who can visit her son more frequently now that he's in a group home nearby, said she wishes everyone in her situation could get community-based help.
More money needs to be put toward finding homes for people like Johnny, she said. “It’s a real shame to have them waste away.”
Mental health agreement
Georgia's agreement with the Justice Department includes added services and funding sources by 2015:
For the mentally ill
- Six crisis service centers
- Residential bridge funding for 540 individuals
- 45 case management providers
For the developmentally disabled
- End new admissions to state mental hospitals
- Up to 1,150 home and community-based waivers
- 12 crisis respite homes
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