From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Georgia mental health advocates are challenging the settlement of a federal civil rights investigation of Georgia’s state psychiatric hospitals, although some fear their objections could allow the state to withdraw its plan to overhaul the facilities.

Among the charges: the settlement allows too much state self regulation and gives the state too long to address critical issues.

Organizations that advocate for people with mental illness — the Carter Center, among them — complained in court papers that federal authorities would rely too heavily on the state to monitor its own performance.

With that degree of self-regulation, they said, the settlement “represents little more than a promise by Georgia to do better.”

The hospitals have been the subject of intense scrutiny since 2007 when the “Hidden Shame” series in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution uncovered the deaths of at least 136 patients under suspicious circumstances from 2002 through late 2007.

Earlier post here.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 10:14 am and is filed under civil rights, hospitals, institutionalization, law, mental health, NOT2BEMISSED. 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.