In addition to agreeing to extend the period of federal oversight, Georgia officials have pledged to dedicate new spending if needed to find appropriate, safe homes for patients who are institutionalized in state psychiatric hospitals, some of which have been there for decades, according to the report.
Gov. Nathan Deal (R) signed documents pledging to remove these adults from state hospitals by June 30, 2018, three years later than the original deadline set back in 2010, according to the report. As of January, 266 people with developmental disabilities remained in the state hospitals.
The state said it will also improve its monitoring of people it has already transferred from psychiatric hospitals to group homes and other community settings, where more than 72 former patients died over the last six years, according to the report. Officials said they will conduct thorough investigations when residents of those facilities die.
The improvement plan for the state’s mental healthcare system came five days before the U.S. Justice Department was scheduled to present evidence in court that Georgia had failed to fulfill its promises in a 2010 agreement that settled a federal investigation, according to the report. The Justice Department was prepared to ask the U.S. District Judge presiding over the case to hold Georgia officials in contempt of court. Now the Justice Department is joining with the state to ask the judge to approve the new plan.
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