Don’t rush to privatize mental health services -Atlanta Journal Constitution

Editorial:

State health officials seem intent on privatizing Georgia’s mental health services, even though there is scant evidence that having for-profit companies take over troubled state hospitals will either save taxpayers money or improve the quality of care to patients.

Still, the Georgia Department of Human Resources is pressing forward with a proposal to turn over one of the state’s seven mental hospitals to a private company as early as next year. DHR’s longer-range plan is to close four of the institutions and privatize most of what remains of the state’s mental health services by 2012, according to a report by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Alan Judd and Andy Miller.

But members of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s mental health commission and a growing number of state legislators have doubts about the proposal. They are correctly demanding more public participation in DHR’s privatization plans, which have been largely hashed out behind the scenes within the giant department’s bureaucracy. Even if there were a case for privatization, DHR’s plans are being pushed at the worst possible time. For months, the state’s mental hospitals have been under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for endangering the lives of patients. If Georgia doesn’t present a viable action plan to correct obvious problems at the facilities, a federal judge could order the state to cede control of the hospitals.

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