LISTEN: Mental health advocates are gathering this week to tell lawmakers that Georgians want access to addiction recovery and health care parity. GPB's Ellen Eldridge has more.

A memorial poster for Georgians who died by overdose

A poster board memorializes Georgians who have died from drug overdoses is seen during a meeting of the Georgia Council for Recovery at the state Capitol on Dec. 20, 2024.

Credit: Sofi Gratas/GPB News

Winter weather forced Wednesday's planned Carter Center Mental Health Parity Day activities from in-person at the state Capitol to Zoom online and Tuesday's Addiction Recovery and Awareness Day has yet to be rescheduled. But mental health advocates, including the Georgia Council for Recovery, discussed some of the issues in a forum last month.

Bills to define and regulate sober living housing, add funding for local peer-led support programs and better enforce health care parity laws are high priority for mental health stakeholders this session.

Jeff Breedlove, a self-described person in long-term recovery, moderated sessions with members of the General Assembly Working Group on Addiction and Recovery, the Georgia Behavioral Health Innovation and Reform Commission, and other mental health advocates such as Georgia Overdose Prevention and the National Alliance for Mental Health state chapter to organize agenda priorities for the legislative session.

 

Behavioral health care access  

The recovery council is prioritizing its work with the Georgia Behavioral Health Innovation and Reform Commission on policies concerning addiction, treatment, prevention, and recovery from substance use disorder, according to its published agenda. 

During this year's legislative session, advocacy organizations and state lawmakers again plan to address behavioral health care needs for people with developmental disabilities, too.  

Georgia ranks near the bottom for access to mental health care support including treatment and insurance coverage for mental health related care, according to a 2023 report.

Last session, some of the loudest calls rang for an increase in funding to the New Option Waiver and Comprehensive Supports (NOW/COMP) waiver programs. Most people with developmental disabilities who need caregiver, residential or employment support are eligible for waivers but often have to wait years because of a shortage of resources.   

Those calls are expected to continue.  

Gov. Brian Kemp committed $80 million in the state budget that started last September to increase provider reimbursement under the waiver and encourage caregiver participation.

Some lawmakers agree more investments are necessary.  

“We started in a really, really deep hole,” said state Sen. Kim Jackson at a recent gathering of health care leaders. “I think the Legislature has to remain committed to continuing to pour real dollars, real money, real investment to getting us out of the hole.”  

Until just over a decade ago, Georgia's general practice was to shunt people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to state hospitals for long term care.

It could take years before communities see pay studies and workforce investments play out for a population that now largely lives in community-based settings but often faces barriers to getting care close to home.  

Darlene Taylor, state representative and chair of the health appropriations subcommittee, said she plans to support legislation that could make it easier to license medical providers as well as grant programs for medical students specializing in behavioral health care.  

She also recognizes a need for infrastructure. To give people with behavioral health issues a chance to succeed, Georgia has, in many ways, moved toward a housing-first model with some setbacks.  

“Right now, it's not just money; It's houses themselves,” Taylor said. “There are not enough facilities.”

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Georgia Association of Recovery Residencies (GARR) executive director Candice Whittaker said the 37-year-old organization upholds top-quality standards for all recovery residences and sober living houses in the state.

“However, our role is not simply to dictate, but to provide advice, education and collaboration to improve these programs for the lives of their residents,” Whittaker said. 

While the state has more than 3,000 beds that are part of a GARR-certified organization, hundreds more go unchecked, she said.

Current programs offering recovery beds are "using, abusing, neglecting and preying on the participants in these homes through unethical and sometimes illegal ways,” Whittaker said.

“We at GARR receive calls daily from participants and their families that give us reports of the horrors that take place in these residences," she said, "but currently there is nothing we can do because there are no laws that force accreditation in Georgia.”

 

Expand availability of opioid overdose reversal medication

Andy Gish, the executive director of the Georgia Overdose Prevention, said the University System of Georgia and Technical College System of Georgia should provide access to opioid reversal boxes in all locations across college campus alongside defibrillators.

Legislation passed in 2024 requires all government buildings, including public school systems, courthouses and jails to have naloxone on hand.

Gish spoke about the emotional difficulty of treating people in the emergency room after a preventable overdose.

“Eleven years ago, I was going to leave my career,” she said. “I was losing too many patients and loved ones to overdoses. But then I found this very small grassroots organization called Georgia Overdose Prevention.” 

Robert Elliott, Laurie Fuggit, the late Jeremy Galloway and Mona Bennett, who founded what is now the Georgia Harm Reduction Coalition, had something big planned for the Gold Dome back then, Gish said.  

“I joined them, and we came together in the Capitol to propose and successfully pass Georgia's medical amnesty law,” Gish said. 

Now, the group hands out almost 300,000 doses of naloxone a year and saves hundreds of lives. 

The Georgia Overdose motto is simple: “If they’re still alive, there’s hope.” 

As of Dec. 20, Gish said 150 people reported opioid overdose reversals from kits they gave out, Gish said.

She reported recent overdose numbers from Dade, Habersham, Richmond, McIntosh, Cobb and more Georgia counties to show lawmakers the reach of the opioid epidemic in Georgia.

 

Fentanyl and the border 

Many of the concerns about behavioral health have bipartisan support, but, while lawmakers seem poised for more reform, some priorities from those most affected by the issues may clash with legislative agendas.

Breedlove moderated a panel with state Reps. Michelle Au and Matthew Gamble, and state Sens. Randy Robertson and Sonya Halpern. In addition to lawmakers, Laurisa Guerrero with Georgia Council for Recovery; Doreen Barr with In Ryan's Name; and Scott Cochran with American Addiction Recovery Association all took part.

They discussed mandatory minimum sentencing, drug court, the role of gun violence in substance use and mental health disorders, and the panel considered the influx of fentanyl from outside the United States, in part, across the southern U.S. border.

Georgia lawmakers took some major steps toward curbing opioid related overdoses last session, and deaths from fentanyl overdoses are decreasing, slightly.

However, during the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, fentanyl seized at the Southern border increased by 480%, including 1,142,859 doses of fentanyl seized by the Atlanta Field Office in 2023. 

Gamble criticized what he called a lack of progress on issues concerning illegal drug trafficking.

“Our borders are wide open,” he said. “People are coming in our nation illegally and we need to do something about it. We’ve needed to do something about it for a very long time and, unfortunately, no one has done anything about it in Washington that has fixed what's going on.”

Georgia U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff cosponsored legislation last June requiring the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to research and develop technologies to detect fentanyl and xylazine at ports of entry to better prevent it from crossing the border.  

The bipartisan bill was signed into law by former President Joe Biden. 

Additionally, in 2022, Biden signed into law Ossoff’s bipartisan Rural Opioid Abuse Prevention Act to help rural communities experiencing high rates of opioid overdoses respond to the crisis.

State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver commented from the microphone on the floor, warning people about stigmatizing the people who are dying.

"I'm not telling you a secret, but there's opportunism and politics and opportunism is played out in a way where we have demonized the immigrant," she said.

Tags: Georgia  substance use disorder  addiction recovery  legislation  Mental Health  Carter Center  parity law  Georgia Politics  Georgia General Assembly