Privatizing Georgia’s mental health care not best for patients

ATHENS, GA. — Lisa Majersky had it good in Pennsylvania.

She regularly met with doctors, therapists and support groups. In nearly two decades of receiving treatment for what she terms “bipolar disorder with a little bit of (obsessive compulsive disorder),” she never had one problem with the state-run mental health system.

In 1990, Majersky, 56, moved to Athens to pursue a career in music, leaving behind a strong support system for one that offered increasingly little support.

When numerous instances of abuse within Georgia’s mental health system were uncovered by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2007, Majersky said she wasn’t surprised – the unapologetic liberal considered such a scandal a matter of time under Georgia’s staunchly Republican state government.

But not only did Majersky stay in Georgia when she could leave, she’s adamantly opposed to the state’s possible privatization of mental health care.

“Turning a hospital into a business, that’s not going to help people,” Majersky said. “That’s not going to solve the problem. That’s going to save money for government people who don’t ever want to spend any money.”

Although she can see the problems with the current and proposed situations, Majersky said she’s not sure what the right answer is.

Determining the proper course of action falls on the shoulders of Georgia’s Mental Health Commission, a 16-member panel founded by Gov. Sonny Perdue. The MHC comprises elected officials and health officials such as senators, judges and professors, among others.

Perdue signed an executive order establishing the MHC in August 2007, charging the commission with the task of evaluating all options available to the state, specifically the pros and cons of turning Georgia’s seven state-funded hospitals over to private corporations operating for profit.

The MHC has met every one to two months since its establishment and is expected to make a recommendation to Perdue by May 27.

But in February, while the MHC was still evaluating the alternatives, Perdue introduced legislation to restructure the 19,000-employee Georgia Department of Human Resources, creating a standalone department for mental health and lowering costs for the cash-strapped state government.

If approved, the restructuring will take effect on June 1 – just four days after the MHC makes its final recommendation.

Despite the conflicting time tables, the MHC is continuing to systematically evaluate the state’s options.

“Our job is still to evaluate all the options and make our best recommendation,” MHC board member and attorney Stan Jones said in January.

Until this point, the MHC seems to have put its primary focus on the financial feasibility of the options in front of them. During an economic recession, state budget cuts are creating funding problems in hospitals and health programs. The current financial climate makes privatization the more attractive financial option, according to the MHC.

Some proponents of privatization also have argued that much of the abuse and neglect occurring in Georgia’s mental health care system between 2002 and 2007 were the result of negligent funding by the state.

Privatizing, they say, would eliminate those financial constraints.

In addition, several of Georgia’s seven mental health hospitals would be closed, centralizing the state’s resources in urban areas. The cost-cutting move would reduce costs for the state but decrease service to rural areas.

For Majersky, the math doesn’t add up.

“I watched my mother living in a nursing home where they were always looking to cut costs to increase their profits,” Majersky said. “The same thing’s going to happen if they privatize the mental health system.

“They really think making money a factor is going to solve problems? It’s not going to solve problems.”

Majersky’s concerns are part of what the MHC is looking into. One of the potential problems  discussed at multiple commission meetings has been how to monitor the service patients receive.

Handing service over to private companies inhibits the ability of third-party organizations to provide checks against the treatment of patients.

This issue hits a nerve in Georgia, where the Atlanta Journal-Constitution uncovered 115 deaths within the mental health system attributed, at least in part, to negligence or poor care by hospital workers.

That was in a state-run system.

Majersky argued that privatizing the hospitals would create the same environment in which her mother suffered before being transferred to a different home in Virginia.

The problem with the MHC’s approach, according to Majersky, is the emphasis placed on the financial aspects of the situation. Jones – who lost a son to suicide, likely a result of mental illness – insists the MHC is focused on creating the best situation for patients, even if monetary issues are an inevitable part of the equation.

But Majersky said the state’s actions aren’t living up to its words.

“We’re not investments, we’re not stock-options or assets,” Majersky said. “The Mental Health Commission has been around for so long, it’s more of a PR move by Sonny Perdue than anything.

“They’re not interested in helping people, because if they were they wouldn’t be thinking about privatizing.”

jonathancrowl@dailynebraskan.com