Georgia puts legislator who promotes Scientology anti-psych efforts on mental health panel - 2020-01-19
Georgia puts legislator who promotes Scientology anti-psych efforts on mental health panel January 19, 2020,
The state of mental health is so bad in Georgia, the federal government stepped in and sued the state, resulting in a 2010 settlement that required Georgia to improve conditions in its psychiatric hospitals and find more neighborhood-level solutions to behavioral problems.
Last year, in a bid to end that federal oversight, the state legislature passed a law creating a 24-member commission to study the problem for four years and come up with real solutions, hoping to mirror the success of a previous commission that studied and reformed criminal justice in the state.
News coverage of the new panel, the Georgia Behavioral Health Reform & Innovation Commission, has tended to assume that the study will find ways to more efficiently bring professional mental health care to more people who need it.
