ATLANTA (AP) — Facing a surge in overdose deaths and rural suicides, Georgia lawmakers want to bolster the state’s dismal mental health care system by pressuring private insurers to improve coverage and increasing state funding for treatment and crisis services.
Members of the state Legislature are scheduled to unveil a policy package for mental health and substance abuse on Wednesday. Efforts to ensure private insurers provide the same level of benefits for depression, anxiety and other mental disorders as they do for medical conditions are expected to be a central part of the legislation.
The package is also expected to contain incentives for people to get trained as mental health workers. Separately, Georgia House Speaker David Ralston has said he anticipates budget proposals that will increase spending on treatment and bed space.
Gov. Brian Kemp’s proposed budget for next year includes millions of dollars in additional funding for the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities to treat adults with substance abuse and mental health problems and add hospital beds for people experiencing mental health crises.
“What I’ve seen is a sea change in terms of recognition of what a significant challenge behavioral health care, or the lack of behavioral health care, is for many Georgians,” said Roland Behm, a member of the board of directors at the Georgia chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “We have very clear indicators that there are many Georgians who are struggling but who aren’t getting the access to care that they need.”