Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital. (Ryan Smith, RN-T.com)
The state-run mental health hospital has about 180 patients and 764 employees, according to Tom Wilson, spokesman for the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
State Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, serves on the state’s Behavioral Health Coordinating Council.
She said the Rome facility is the only one immediately closing as part of a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding treatment of patients in the state’s seven psychiatric hospitals.
“But there’s certainly the requirement to deliver services differently in the future,” she said.
Wilson said the closure is part of a 5-year plan to move developmentally disabled and mentally ill patients to private settings and community-based services. The agreement lays aside a DOJ lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Closing NWGRH is expected to free up departmental funding to expand community-based services, but it came as a surprise to Dempsey and other Floyd County lawmakers, who were notified Wednesday.
State Rep. Barbara Massey Reece, D-Menlo, said she had expected at least a part of the facility to remain open to serve critical cases in the region.
“While I understand the move to community-based services, there are those who need supervision all the time,” she said. “More and more, folks with mental health needs are finding their way into our prison system. I’m concerned about not having enough support out there for those who need it.”
Initial plans called for the behavioral health commissioner Dr. Frank Shelp to meet with NWGRH staffers Tuesday to discuss their options, but the wintry weather intervened.
Dempsey said Labor Commissioner Mark Butler “has promised me the full resources of his department to help those employees.” At this point, she said, all positions are funded through June 30.
Local lawmakers also intend to ensure there is a smooth transition for the patients, although details were sketchy Thursday. The facility will stop accepting new admissions on April 1.
“These are things we’re going to have to stay very involved in,” Dempsey said. “There are plans for new programs, but there’s no date. I plan to hold the department’s feet to the fire; to make sure those employees and consumers are looked out for.”
Wilson said 54 of the current patients have been admitted to the mental health ward, and 73 patients admitted by a court. They will have to be moved to state hospitals in Milledgeville or Atlanta.
“Patients placed by the court system can’t just move out. They will be moved to other hospitals,” Wilson said.
The state’s move to privatize mental health care has outraged many people, including former state representative Buddy Childers of Floyd County.
Childers served as chairman of the House Health and Human Services Committee and was an advocate for the hospital during his tenure.
“It’s a shame that we worked so hard and so long to put so many dollars toward mental health to see it wiped away with the swipe of a pen,” Childers said. “I am sad for the clients, families and employees affected by this,” he said.
Childers said he would like to see the decision reversed.
Jim Moore, president of the National Alliance of Mental Illness in Rome, has questioned the decision to both close the facility and privatize mental health.
“Our concern is ‘will they have service in place to replace what’s being taken in a seamless transition and in a timely fashion?’” Moore said.
Hospital administrator Karl Schwarzkopf could not be reached for comment Thursday.
When a Rome News-Tribune reporter called Schwarzkopf, she was initially told he was in a meeting. When she identified herself as being with the Rome News-Tribune, she was then told he was not in.
The hospital was created 27 years ago to serve mentally ill and developmentally disabled patients in a 16-county region and programs expanded over time to serve patients in a 31 county region.
Ground was broken in April 1971 for the Redmond Road complex that replaced the 1940s-era military buildings of Battey State Hospital.
Lester Maddox, then the lieutenant governor, attended the ceremony that also drew about 35 picketers complaining the primary contractor on the $9.8 million project employed non-union labor.
The facility opened in 1974, adding mental patients to the tuberculosis patients treated at Battey.
By 1977, NWGRH was averaging 281 patients a day with a staff of 605 workers. There were 260 beds reserved for mental hospital patients and the number of beds for tubercular patients dropped to 50 from 80. The inpatient tuberculosis unit was phased out in the 1990s.
In October 2010, then-Gov. Sonny Perdue and the U.S. Justice Department announced an agreement that Perdue said avoided direct federal control of the system and set concrete goals for substituting community-based services.
In the announcement, Perdue said the state would stop admitting developmentally disabled people into state hospitals by July 2011 and clear all remaining patients by July 2015.
The state also owns six other mental health hospitals: Georgia Regional Hospital at Atlanta; Georgia Regional Hospital at Savannah; Central State Hospital, Milledgeville; Southwestern State Hospital, Thomasville; West Central Georgia Regional Hospital, Columbus; and East Central Regional Hospital, Augusta.
Staff writer Diane Wagner contributed to this report
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For the complete settlement agreement click here.
For a recent report on planned changes to the mental health system click here.
UCPGA is hiring in Rome and Cartersville, GA! On-line applications are available at www.ucpga.org
alleged gunman Jared L. Loughner, I shutter at the thought of closing another mental health hospital. Isn't that just going to increase the number of mentally unstable people in the community, particually those with paranoid schizophrenia?
Thank you for commenting.
...and on another note what is the 2011 budget for GCAL the "crisis call center" and consumer "no-help" call center? This farce of a government funded private company continues to block access to care and provide misinformation to consumers just so it can provide Frank Shelp with stats on how much money they save the state of GA! Last I heard their 2010 budget was close to 4 million...yes... four million. For what? do they actually provide treament for GA's mentally ill. No, of course not...they just give you another number to call or tell you who has an available bed for a mental health patient...most of the time the info is wrong!!!
Thank you Sonny for putting this great system into place...refusing to recognize when changes were needed and getting GA into such a situation that the DOJ had to come in and "fix" things...hold on to your hat everyone, because we have not hit rock bottom yet!
If you have other information please contact the Rome News-Tribune newsroom at 706-290-5252 or romenewsroom@npco.com
And I wonder if the public is aware of the unemployment cap that the state will be instituting for the soon to unemployed Northwest staff. It won't even be enough for most people to live on. Let alone make rent or mortgage payments.
I think this decision was reached on several levels with many "Judases" having their hand in the outcome. For instance, did anyone know that Floyd Medical Center is in the process of building a unit to receive this type of patient population? I have known about this decision for months. I did not know they would be coming from NWGRH. I am not just pointed the finger at FMC's leadership, there are others too. I just find the timing of creating the unit with the closing of the facility to be coincidental. On that note, FMC will need to staff the unit. I believe it will only be a 35 bed unit. I encourage those employees to apply at Floyd for the positions there. I also understand that NWGRH employees can apply to the Atlanta hospital and should receive preferential attention in getting placed there, if one does not mind a two-hour commute. YUCK.
I know of a few employees who are thinking of selling their homes and moving to another city to work at those state hospitals, so they can receive their retirement benefits.
I am no fan of Perdue, Dempsey, etc. but the leadership of our great town and county have a hand in the closing too.
No they do not have thier own private nurse 24 hours a day alothough most need one!
It isnt just nurses that amke Northwest function!
To explain your comment about the needed amount of staff here it is! You have about 40 Pts. to each unit, the unit has two sides....male side and female side. You have to have a nurse manager over the whole unit, you also have to have 2 to 3 Doctors per unit, then you need Rn's on three shifts and LPN who give out the meds on all three shifts, then you need about 6 to 8 HST's on first shift because the Pts. have to go to different buildings and off campus during the day and they also go to a recovery mall on campus, so you need about 4 hst's for second and 4 on 3rd, 2 for each side...and by the way ONE person can not deal with a mentaly ill Pts. most of the time it takes more staff than we have on campus to deal with one in crisis! Also you have to have office staff on 1st and 2nd shift to answer phones, file and things like that, then you have to have housekeeping to clean up after the Pts. who by the way love to do things like rub thier doo doo on the walls!! You have to have people who run a caff. for them so they can be fed! You have to have people who cut their hair, do xrays, dentist who do the teeth, you have to have an all shifts maintenece crew because the pts. are in rage and destroy a whole unit in one episode, you also have to have Case workers who try to find these pts. places to go when and if they get better, you have to have a staff of activity people who provided them things to do and coping skils and things like that, you have to have a whole Department of HR staff to do payroll, workers comp., time and leave, and so on, you also have to have a group of people who work in a business office that keep up with Pts. belongings and other things, then you need people who order the suplies that it takes to run the hosp. and people to deliver them to each unit, I could go on and on if needed but I think you get the picture from this! Also I only told you what it took to run one unit, there are several units on campus, and by the way dont beleive everything you read in RNT... we have more than 180 Pts.!! If you think the number of staff is obserd for the amount of Pts., I would like to see anyone who doesnt work in the mental setting to try and control a mentaly insane person and keep everyone else safe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I did not intend to respond about the closing of NWGRH until I read your replies. You are wrong about the state having no choice and you are wrong that this is not about politics. I have followed the history of the “state efforts” over the past 6 years, talked with various officials and representatives, including Ms. Dempsey. The state had every opportunity to “fix” the issues before the DOJ ever became involved. I am a conservative republican so it does my hearts no good to have to conclude that the problem lies with the republican leadership. Mistakes made included not merely underfunding the state hospitals and community services, but decreasing an already pitiful budget before DOJ became involved. You see Applaucy, the vulnerable population of the mentally ill has little input to how things are done and most do not vote. In our state, it much more rewarding to concentrated on fishing ponds that few people use, horse barns that few people use, and purposed tennis courts that few people will use. The mentally ill or developmentally disabled obviously are not a part of state officials constituencies, unfortunately.
Individuals close to the DOJ and state negotiations described to me what they saw as pure arrogance or willful neglect, of those under the leadership of Governor Purdue, as they attempted to comply with the first DOJ findings. That is why the state is in the mess that we are in with the DOJ. You cannot negotiate principally when you go against a group, the DOJ that you have figuratively thumbed your nose at.
I attended a meeting with former head of DHHR, BJ Walker, held in Rome a few years ago. She was brought her from Chicago, by Governor Purdue, to “fix” DHHR. She was in Rome, because complaints about the state of mental health in GA. She blamed all the issues on the legislature for her need to reduce the budget for state mental health services. Those in the past and in the present residing at the 2 Peachtree in Atlanta obviously had no power to change the situation or were sycophants to the Governor Purdue for thy were quite aware of the patient safety issues at the state hospitals which resulted from insufficient staffing due to severe budget constraints, all under the leadership of Governor Purdue and BJ Walker.
It is laughable that anyone would think the state had no choice and could not have prevented the care issues and deaths of patients. You need to do more research than the AJC. And, no, I am not or never been an employee of a state hospital.
I’m writing in regard to the closing of Northwest Regional Hospital in Rome, Georgia. I’m sure it took a lot of educated people a lot of hours to come up with a plan to work our mentally ill citizens back into the community, and close our state mental hospitals. I would like to know just how many of these people have ever worked one-on-one on a daily basis with the mentally ill? I’m sure this plan looks good on paper, but at what cost? I have chosen mental health as my career and every day I spend with our clients can be challenging, but it is truly rewarding.
Upon admission to our hospital our clients need a safe, controlled, environment. A large percentage of our clients need protecting from themselves. This is seven days a week, twenty four hours a day. Mental illness is a disease, a lifelong disease with no cure, only treatment.
It seems every time the state needs to cut the budget it is the most vulnerable citizens that suffer. I agree the state budget needs to be cut, but let’s cut the fat not the necessities, and I would say our hospital, a major source of treatment and safe refuge is a necessity.