DHR mulling private mgm't of state mental hospitals

Private firms may soon run some of the State’s psychiatric hospital services, according to Department of Human Resources Commissioner, B.J. Walker.

The Atlanta-Journal Constitution says Walker considers the step, quote, “a creative way” to improve the state’s ailing mental hospital system.

DHR officials say Georgia could turn over one of its seven facilities to a private company, and others could be closed down.

However, DHR Spokesman David Noel called the idea only an “exploratory proposal.”

The State is also weighing moving mentally ill criminal defendants to a new facility in Milledgeville, according to the report.

Gov. Sonny Perdue in 2007 signed an executive order creating a state commission on mental health.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of Georgia's mental health system.