Mental health plan draws local officials' ire

Savannah's top elected officials expressed their frustration today over the imminent closure of the city's mental hospital. Georgia Regional Hospital is set to close by July first. After that date, Department of Human Resources officials say the hospital will be "repurposed."

Part of that repurposing includes the fact that the hospital will no longer use its 53-beds to stabilize critically mentally ill patients or to treat long-term patients. Those services would be moved into the community and to a centralized facility in Milledgeville.

At a sometimes contentious meeting at Georgia Regional today, Savannah Mayor Otis Johnson, Chatham County Chairman Pete Liakakis, Chatham County Sherrif Al St. Lawrence and other local elected officials pressed DHR officials for details.

DHR officials could not say exactly where in the local community they would treat patients who otherwise would be treated at the mental hospital, although they said they have identifed four sites in Savannah. That prompted Mayor Johnson to warn of a "not in my backyard" response by local residents.

Sherrif St. Lawrence said that he would have to hire more deputies to transport arrested mental patients to Milledgeville, in addition to what the county spends to house and treat the mentally ill in the jail. He complained of a lack of preparation, saying, "Their orders are that there will be no more in-patient beds here after June 30th and nothing's in place!"

Outside, about 40 protesters waved signs and shouted slogans against the DHR's plans.

DHR officials said, the plan to re-organize state mental health services actually would provide more services on a statewide level. They said that while some of those services would not be provided in Savannah, the plan would increase the number of patients able to be seen in the Savannah area from 2,713 in 2008 to 5,215 in 2010.

DHR Commissioner B.J. Walker told reporters afterwards, "We came to get feedback. We got it. We came to hear concerns. We hear them. But we also know we have to provide the very best services for people with mental illness and we're not doing that right now."