From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Mandated improvements in mental health care in Georgia, the result of two recent federal civil rights challenges, could cost an estimated $480 million and force the doubling of Georgia’s mental health budget. But even if that happened, the state would just reach the national average for per-person spending on mental health, according to an analysis by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The cases have alleged widespread civil rights violations of patients in state psychiatric hospitals, including people with mental illness and developmental disabilities.

In a recent settlement, the state agreed to create substantial community-based programs for these people so that they would not be compelled to go into hospitals to receive needed services. The other matter, involving allegations of “critically deficient” conditions in mental hospitals, is still pending.

Georgia is nearly three times more likely than the national average to treat people with mental illness in a state hospital rather than in the community, which suggests its budget for those facilities actually lags even further behind the average.

… A larger shortfall exists in community services such as group homes, outpatient clinics and other programs intended to prevent hospitalizations. On average, other states spend 2.5 times more than Georgia on treating and managing mental illnesses outside hospitals.

Advocates say that investing in community care would be more expensive in the short term, but would ultimately save the state money.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 9:22 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, abuse, advocacy, institutionalization, intellectual/developmental disabilities, law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.