Fulton County will no longer provide its own mental health care

Fulton County will stop providing mental health services to residents, commissioners decided Wednesday.

About 1,500 people go to county facilities for help with addictions, diagnosis or therapy. But at a cost of $3,200 per person to provide the services, Fulton leaders think more people can be helped if they fund treatment elsewhere. Other programs spend closer to $1,200 per person for similar services. The county estimates there are about 34,000 uninsured Fulton County residents who could use mental health care.

“Once we looked at the numbers, we became underwhelmed with the impact we were making,” said Anna Roach, the county’s chief strategy officer. “We have to do something about the way Behavioral Health is structured.”