Georgia’s Mental Health Crisis and Overdose Deaths Surge
About 1.3 million Georgia adults, or 17 percent of the adult population, reported mental illness in the past year, with 32 percent of Georgia adults reporting poor mental health status. Drug overdose deaths in Georgia increased every year since 2012, rising 35 percent from 2012 to 2016, with approximately 69 percent of deaths in 2016 related to opioids including heroin and synthetic drugs such as oxycodone and morphine. Drug overdose deaths in Georgia are now on par with automobile crash deaths. The suicide rate in rural Georgia counties was 16.8 percent in 2016 compared to 12.9 percent in non-rural counties. Suicide deaths in Georgia increased 25 percent from 2012 to 2016, with 90 percent of people in the state who die by suicide experiencing mental illness.
Access Gaps and Rural Challenges
Thirteen percent of Georgians lack health insurance, and 5 million Georgians live in one of the state’s 103 federally designated mental health professional shortage areas. Ninety-eight of Georgia’s 108 rural counties are short on mental health professionals. Sixty percent of the 55 Georgia counties with drug overdose deaths above the national average are rural areas with limited substance abuse treatment. A 2015 survey of more than 1,900 rural Georgians found that 6.9 percent cited mental health professionals as delivering the greatest impact on community health—a percentage that rose to 16.6 in 2016.
Policy Solutions and Progress
Georgia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities formally agreed in 2015 to provide supported housing, placing 3,213 Georgians as of July 1, 2016, though the settlement goal is 9,000 people. Georgia became the first state to provide Medicaid reimbursement for peer specialists in 1999. In 2017, the state increased funding for mental health services for children from birth to age five. Georgia lawmakers passed the Jason Flatt Act in 2015 to require suicide prevention education training for public school workers. However, Georgia declined Medicaid expansion, leaving more than 300,000 Georgians in a coverage gap—those making too much to qualify under current Medicaid rules but too little for tax credits in the health insurance marketplace.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://gbpi.org/fight-substance-abuse-improve-mental-health-care-to-help-more-georgians/