A new report from a group advocating for mental health access nationwide warns the pay gap is pushing behavioral health care providers out of insurance networks.
Substance use disorder is characterized by continued substance use despite harmful consequences like criminal charges, hospitalization and the threat of death. It remains one of the world’s greatest public health problems, affecting 1.6 million Georgians.
Georgia House Bill 657 establishes statutory definitions and qualifications for recovery community organizations focused on substance use disorders and formalizes peer specialist certification under the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
House Bill 219 would provide alternatives to discipline programs that often deter nurses from seeking treatment. It would allow them to get help, including a peer assistance program without including the information on their nursing license.
Sober housing organizations are places where people with substance use disorder can live as they work toward independence. A new Georgia Senate study has recommendations on how the state might regulate peer support housing.
In 2015, about 9% of fentanyl-related deaths among people 65 and over also included a stimulant. By 2023 nearly half did, most commonly cocaine. That’s in line with youth trends in the so-called fourth wave of the opioid epidemic.
A group of addiction recovery advocates from around the South, including Georgia, have begun collaborating to better work with legislators in the nation's capital.
Georgia Senate Bill 79 or the Fentanyl Reduction and Eradication Act, takes Austin's Law to the next step, establishing mandatory minimum sentences for drug crime.
A bill called the Fentanyl Eradication and Removal Act that passed out of Georgia’s Senate last week would create mandatory minimum sentences for those trafficking in fentanyl if passed by the House and signed by the governor.
The Legislature passed Georgia’s Mental Health Parity Act in 2022. Since then, the Carter Center and mental health care advocates have remembered the day by visiting lawmakers and asking agencies to hold insurance companies accountable for keeping the state law.
Work at the Carter Center helped make Georgia the leader when it comes to certified peer specialists, who are trained to counsel others from a perspective of shared experience.
Bills to define and regulate sober living housing, add funding for local peer-led support programs and better enforce healthcare parity laws are high priority for mental health stakeholders this session.
Between 2022 and 2023, there was a 63% increase in the length of time people experienced homelessness in DeKalb County. A disproportionate number of those impacted are children and people of color.
In Georgia, those that make it through accountability court programs — over 1,000 every year — are far less likely to re-enter incarceration and addiction.
