An agreement signed-off-on by Governor Sonny Perdue and federal Justice officials puts Georgia on-watch to vastly improve its mental health system.
The five-year settlement requires the state to make widespread changes to better deliver care and ensure safety of patients in Georgia’s seven psychiatric hospitals. Last year, a Justice Department report found critical errors in the system that led to unnecessary deaths and injuries. Georgia has mental health facilities in Atlanta, Savannah, Milledgeville, Rome, Augusta, Columbus, and Thomasville.
Under the deal’s terms, the state has one year to correct the worst conditions that have led to deaths in hospitals. Within four years, improvements must be made in other areas. There will be regular federal inspections.
Governor Sonny Perdue say the state is absolutely on-board to correcting the problems:
"To have our federal-steward oversight...we welcome that because we want to be held accountable. We want to do it the right way, to be acclaimed as doing it the right way. It’ll take investments that we’ll make because it’s the right thing to do."
And those investments might be costly. Asked by GPB Friday where the extra money would come from, Perdue stated only "It’ll come from the budget."
That budget is already challenged with a two-billion dollar plus shortfall.
The five-year settlement requires the state to make widespread changes to better deliver care and ensure safety of patients in Georgia’s seven psychiatric hospitals. Last year, a Justice Department report found critical errors in the system that led to unnecessary deaths and injuries. Georgia has mental health facilities in Atlanta, Savannah, Milledgeville, Rome, Augusta, Columbus, and Thomasville.
Under the deal’s terms, the state has one year to correct the worst conditions that have led to deaths in hospitals. Within four years, improvements must be made in other areas. There will be regular federal inspections.
Governor Sonny Perdue say the state is absolutely on-board to correcting the problems:
"To have our federal-steward oversight...we welcome that because we want to be held accountable. We want to do it the right way, to be acclaimed as doing it the right way. It’ll take investments that we’ll make because it’s the right thing to do."
And those investments might be costly. Asked by GPB Friday where the extra money would come from, Perdue stated only "It’ll come from the budget."
That budget is already challenged with a two-billion dollar plus shortfall.
