Tag Archives: mental illness

Georgia moving people out of mental hospitals

The state of Georgia is stopping admitting to state mental hospitals people with developmental disabilities and is starting to move many people with severe and persistent mental illness out of state hospitals into the communities.

According to DBHDD Summary of October 2010 Settlement by Georgia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities, Frank E. Shelp, M.D., M.P.H., Commissioner:

By July 1, 2011, Georgia will stop admitting to its state hospitals people for whom the reason for admission would be a primary diagnosis of a developmental disability, including Temporary and Immediate Care (TIC).

Enhanced community services will be provided for people whose primary diagnosis is a developmental disability and who are either currently hospitalized in state hospitals or who are at risk of hospitalization in state hospitals. Those with forensic status may be included in the target population if the relevant court finds community placement appropriate.

In all cases, the individuals served will be able to make an informed choice about where they’d like to live. Unless they choose otherwise, everyone in the target population will be served in their own homes or the homes of their families and none will be served in a host home, congregate living setting, skilled nursing facility, intermediate care facility, or assisted living facility. All of the waiver participants will receive support coordination.

And a larger group of people: Continue reading →

Treating an “epidemic of mass incarceration” —Physicians in NJEM

Everybody from Serpico to Richard Branson and even the U.S. Senate says the War on Drugs has failed and we should stop locking up so many people. Now physicians weigh in.

ScienceDaily, 1 June 2011, U.S. Physicians Call for New Approach to Address National ‘Epidemic of Mass Incarceration’

With 2.3 million people behind bars and an estimated 10 million Americans cycling in and out of correctional facilities each year, the United States is in the midst of an “epidemic of mass incarceration,” say researchers from the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, a collaboration of The Miriam Hospital and Brown University.

In a Perspective article to appear in the June 2 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the authors argue that much of this epidemic is due to inadequate treatment of addiction and mental illness in the community, which they say can be linked to policy changes over the last 30 years, such as severe punishment for drug users as a result of the nation’s “War on Drugs.”

“More than half of all inmates have a history of substance use and dependence or mental illness, yet they are often released to the community without health insurance or access to appropriate medical care and treatment,” says Josiah D. Rich, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, which is based at The Miriam Hospital.

“Sadly, without these linkages to transitional care in the community, the majority of these individuals will re-enter the revolving door of the criminal justice system, which already costs our county $50 billion annually,” he adds.

What is to be done? Continue reading →