A mental health crisis
Perdue and Legislature must show leadership as U.S. probes conditions at seven hospitals
By Mike King
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/14/08
Consultants from the Medical College of Georgia have outlined a path for improving medical care at the state's troubled mental hospitals. It will be up to Gov. Sonny Perdue and the state Legislature now to find the money to do it.
Among other things, the mental health experts —- asked by the state to examine the hospitals —- recommended requiring more experience and board certification for psychiatrists and general physicians; improved training for other medical staff members; and better pay for nonmedical workers. That last category of workers provides much of the hands-on care for residents institutionalized because of the severity of their illness. Many of those workers have no specific training in mental health care and make less than fast-food workers.
The report comes as the U.S. Justice Department examines conditions at the seven hospitals. The probe was prompted by stories in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that documented 115 cases of suspicious deaths at state institutions from 2002 through 2006. Last month, the newspaper reported an additional 21 suspicious deaths in 2007.
The MCG consultants said they believed the hospitals were already moving to adopt many of their ideas, which is an encouraging development. But other recommendations —- changing the hospitals' "culture" of relying so heavily on anti-psychotic drugs, for instance —- will be more expensive and take longer to implement.
That's where Perdue and the Legislature must show some leadership. In years past, when other scandals have surfaced in the public mental health system, the state has tried to improve care by emphasizing better services in the community to lessen the demand on the state institutions. But it hasn't worked. Because the state has failed to effectively monitor the quality of care inside the hospitals, the lives of patients who are the wards of the state are in jeopardy.
The Legislature must recognize this failure and take action immediately. The budget for the state Department of Human Resources, which runs the mental health system, must be prioritized to put money where it is clearly needed the most —- securing the care and safety of the state's most vulnerable residents in Georgia's public mental hospitals.
—- Mike King, for the editorial board (mking@ajc.com)
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