One Man's Opinion: Mental help is on the way

As late as the 1960s, Central State Hospital in Milledgeville was the nation’s largest asylum/sanitarium. At peak, the hospital was home to 40,000 patients, many there against their will, in multiple facilities across the 1,800-acre campus in Baldwin County. During the 1970s and through the 1990s, the state and federal governments began a wholesale move away from institutionalizing the mentally ill. That is a good thing.

And while Central State Hospital still exists, on a much smaller scale, its mission has changed, yet problems of mental health and mental illness have only grown, almost geometrically. During the recent pandemic, 2,036 Georgians lost their lives due to an overdose of painkillers and other narcotics, fueled by their own addiction and other mental health challenges. Thousands of mentally ill still live in Georgia, though now “home” is most often to be found on the streets or in county jails and state prisons. And the resources to assist, support, treat and hopefully return to productive lives are not likely to be found among the homeless. Georgia’s sheriffs and prison wardens are also poorly staffed and ill-equipped to deal with these concerns.

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