A Senate health committee unanimously backed legislation Tuesday that would allow licensed professional counselors to involuntarily commit to an institution for 72 hours patients who appear to be mentally ill and a danger.
Georgia doctors, psychologists, clinical social workers and other medical professionals already have the ability to involuntarily commit for examination patients who they deem to be at risk of hurting themselves or another person.
Supporters of Senate Bill 65 say there aren’t enough of those professionals – especially in rural Georgia – and the result can put patients at risk by delaying or hindering critical care.
Giving licensed professional counselors the authority to involuntarily commit patients would fill a need and ease the strain on Georgia’s mental health system, promoters of SB 65 testified Tuesday. Georgia has roughly 4,800 licensed professional counselors.
“We need more investment in our mental health services,” Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, told members of the Senate Health and Human Service Committee. “This is one piece of the puzzle.”
The bill is under discussion at a time when Georgia is struggling to provide more community-based mental health services, including mobile crisis teams, as part of a 2010 agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice that stemmed from an investigation into the abuse and death of patients in state mental hospitals.
The state’s behavioral health department has improved in recent years but is still evolving, said Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, who sponsored the bill.
Carlene Holder Taylor, a licensed professional counselor in St. Marys, recalled an incident several years ago when the staff of a local hospital let a man who had threatened suicide leave after he had calmed down and said he had changed his mind. The man later committed suicide. What hospital staff wasn’t trained to know was that someone who has decided to go through with suicide often has angst followed by a feeling of peace, she said.
That’s a subtle sign licensed counselors would recognize, said Taylor, who spoke in support of the bill.
“We are your boots on the ground,” she said. “We want to do our job if you’ll let us.”
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