The 2022 unified vision for transforming mental health and substance use care in Georgia is part of a multiyear legislative process. Last year, they called for better access to mental health care as the state tackled effects from the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, the group is asking for more funding of behavioral health programs that have proven effective.
Residents in rural South Georgia are adamantly fighting a zoning request — a faith-based nonprofit called Redeemed Living wants to build cabins for men in addiction recovery on 23 acres of local farmland. But the neighbors don’t want them living next door.
Calls to 988 will be answered by counselors trained in suicide prevention. Georgia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities says the state has invested about $20.5 million in 988 related expenditures over the past 20 months.
The Fulton County Jail is called Georgia’s largest de facto mental health facility because of the high prevalence of mentally ill detainees. Often, they have no place else to go until a crime is committed.
Between early February and mid-March, at least 66 emergency department visits in Georgia involved the use of cocaine, methamphetamine, crack, heroin, pain killers and cannabis products that were likely laced with fentanyl, which is 30 to 50 times stronger than heroin. Experts worry about increased risk of overdose when users believe that the pills are legitimate pharmaceutical products.
Legislation to bar future lawsuits against the companies involved in a $26 billion multi-state settlement must be passed before the state can collect $636 million dollars. The money will help pay for preventing and addressing the effects of opioid dependence.
Even when mental health is covered, providers of behavioral health services can be tough to find. And there are not always enough of them to treat rising pandemic-related anxiety or depression.
The deadline to sign up for a health plan on the marketplace is Jan. 15.
The BOOST Grants Program provides three-year grants, renewed annually, to community-based and statewide organizations that operate comprehensive out-of-school time programming year-round, over the summer months or after school during the academic year.
Parity in health care means substance misuse treatment and heart defects should be treated the same way by insurance companies. A federal parity law passed in 2008, but there is no mechanism to ensure parity is enforced in Georgia. A plan presented Nov. 10 at the state Capitol seeks to change that.
The latest Mental Health America report likely underreports the current prevalence of mental illnesses in the population, both among children and adults, but nothing in the pandemic by itself would suggest that the relative rankings of the states would have changed solely because of the pandemic.
There were early signs trouble was brewing on the substance use front. When the state released its first revenue report after the pandemic took hold here and revenues plummeted, tax collections from alcohol sales had risen 13%.
In Georgia, more than 1,900 people died of drug-related causes in the 12-month period ending January 2021, which is a 38.8% increase over data from the previous year.
Increased funding for mental health treatment is desperately needed in Georgia, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only made things worse. The state has a total of 533 beds for adults in crisis with a mental health or substance use emergency.
The Georgia Mental Health Policy Partnership and Substance Use Disorder Community shared a vision Monday for moving through the COVID-19 pandemic and shift perceptions around mental health, substance use, and well-being.
The coalition is offering positive policy solutions based on the American Rescue Plan funds for the 2022 Georgia legislative session to reform policies impacting the Georgia Mental Health Policy Partnership and Substance Use Disorder Community.
