>> A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE
(Ed. Note: This is the second in a series on mental health illness from a Baldwin County viewpoint. This week, a county commissioner discusses the current state of treatment for the disease in Georgia, in particular as it relates to local government.)
Baldwin County commissioner Henry Craig is doing his best as this year’s President of the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) to raise public awareness of mental illness, making speeches across the state and pushing for more state funding for what he considers a huge problem.
Craig lived on the campus of Central State Hospital in the 1960s as a teenager and worked there for about 18 months. His father was, at that time, the superintendent of Central State, a hospital that in 1974 had approximately 13,000 patients and was the largest mental institution in the world.
Asked in a recent interview the reason for his efforts, Craig was quick to answer.
“I have lived with thousands of mentally challenged, mentally ill humans who were treated in a way that was not appropriate to treat another human being,” he responded.
“Now,” he went on, “to look at the people on the streets of Atlanta who are obviously mentally ill, to those that are mentally ill in our own community, to hear from citizens across Baldwin County and now across the state about all the issues that are affecting the mentally ill…that can be improved, can be better.”
Craig said mental illness creates a three-pronged challenge for counties: moral, financial, and public safety problems.
“The moral problem is, we’re treating those that are mentally ill in an immoral way,” he said. “If a person has cancer, you find help. If a person has a heart disease, you find help. But, if a person is mentally ill, put him in jail. And,” he added, “In some cases that’s the best thing that can happen because that’s the only way they can be treated. But, it’s morally wrong to do that.”
Craig said the financial burden is one counties will not be able to overcome. He noted that as many as 50 percent of the inmates in the local law enforcement center suffer from mental illness to various degrees. The county is required to provide medical care for the mentally ill, as they are for other medical issues. However, there is no reimbursement from the state and “no support” either, according to Craig.
“While they’re in the county jail, the jail is spending money to house them, to protect them, and also to provide the necessary drugs and mental health provisions to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars every year; the larger the county, the greater the expense,” said Craig.
Craig also stressed that the dilemma doesn’t end when the incarceration ends.
“They have become county responsibilities,” he explained, “when counties across the state will never have adequate resources to do anything other than put a band-aid on it. And, at the end of their time, you send them back into the community without anybody to assist them. Then, all of sudden, you call them frequent flyers, you see them again.”
Then, Craig said, there is the third prong of the effects of mental illness.
“Too often it becomes a public safety problem. A week ago, it was in Maine,” he said. “The day after that tragic event everybody knew the person was mentally ill. Somehow the person didn’t get the care he needed.”
Baldwin County has not escaped similar occurrences, Craig said.
“I can cite you several instances in Baldwin County where that’s happened over the years,” he said.
Craig stressed the result of the three problems is one counties cannot handle. According to Craig, counties are “desperate” to get resources from the state, policies from the state, “to be relieved of the moral inconsistency of dealing with those mentally ill the way they do.”
The county commissioner said he received updated statistics this past Tuesday morning from Mental Health America, a non-profit organization that addresses the needs of those living with mental illness and tracks data from the 50 states and District of Columbia. The information is the latest available, Craig believes.
Access to Care is a ranking comprised of several measures, and, overall, Georgia ranks 48 out of 51. Within that category, the state ranks 50th for adults with any mental illness (AMI) who did not receive any treatment; 41st among adults AMI who are uninsured; 50th among adults with a cognitive disability who could not see a doctor due to costs; 47th for mental health workforce availability; and 47th among youth with a major development episode who did not receive mental health treatment.
Craig said the state legislature did take some action in 2022 that would have helped start leveling the playing field, had it been followed.
“Part of House Bill 1013 says all insurance providers in the state of Georgia are required to provide the same level of health care to those that are mentally as to those others that are ill,” he said. “Not one insurance company in Georgia has done that.”
Craig stressed again that something must be done.
“It is morally wrong for counties to use jails as the primary mental health provider. It is outrageously expensive for counties to be primary providers of mental health in jails. And,” he added, “It is too often a public safety problem for counties.”
(Next week: What Craig is doing to push for more funding and what the legislature is considering in the upcoming session.)