Editor:
In response to deaths and injustices recently exposed in state mental hospitals, we are going to the state capitol with National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Georgia on February 15th to provide a voice on behalf of our state’s most vulnerable population – people living with mental illness.
NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives of people living with serious mental illness and their families. Mental illness affects one in five American families. In Georgia, over 500,000 of Georgia’s close to 8.2 million residents have a severe mental illness.
Along with 29 other NAMI affiliates across the state, and other mental health advocates, we will meet with our state legislators demanding immediate response to the current crisis, as well as major changes overall.
‰ As a first step, the state must immediately ensure the safety of every person in the state hospital system. Hospitals are an essential component of the health care system and must deliver humane, quality treatment.
‰ Second, an independent permanent oversight body for the state hospitals must be created. “Ombudsman” programs of this nature already protect many older Americans in long-term care facilities and nursing homes. People with serious mental illnesses deserve the same.
‰ Our legislators must sign on to sponsor a Statuary Legislative Commission to Reform Georgia’s mental healthcare system.
‰ Mental health insurance parity is an issue that affects everyone with mental illness. We want state workers to have mental health parity.
‰ NAMI Georgia/ GBI’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training should be completed in every jurisdiction in Georgia by the end of 2007.
Without reforms, Georgia’s system of care will remain broken and other unnecessary deaths surely will occur. This is not what taxpayers deserve. It is not what people living with mental illness deserve.
We are going to fight for Georgia’s taxpayers, people living with mental illnesses, their families, and our communities. Please join us in this fight.
Jim and Bonnie Moore
NAMI-Rome