GEORGIA
Recommendations from several planning groups about expanding community services for people with disabilities resulted in significant legislative and executive initiatives and funding to move people with disabilities off waiting lists and to revamp community mental health services.
The Budget
In his January 2003 budget message, Governor Sonny Perdue pledged to continue "to work toward full implementation of the Olmstead decision." For the FY 2004 budget, he proposed about $4 million to expand waiver services to those waiting for community-based services, and about $9.6 million to support those moving from institutions to community-based settings.
2002 Legislation
A measure enacted by the 2002 legislature expands the Rehabilitation Option under Medicaid to cover more community-based mental health and substance abuse treatment alternatives. The law also increases the payment rates to providers of mental retardation services and extends coverage for more community-based services for those with mental retardation. Newly covered services include treatment in community homes with round-the-clock support, family support services, and supported employment or other day services.
Home and Community-Based Services
The expansion of community services for people with mental illness or mental retardation follows upon recommendations of a Blue Ribbon Task Force on Home and Community-Based Services, created by Governor Roy Barnes in 1999. Additional planning and recommendations issued from an Olmstead Planning Committee, which included consumers, advocates, providers and state agency officials. The committee made its recommendations in an internal document on January 30, 2002. The governor issued an executive order in June 2002 that charged several governmental council and advisory committees for people with disabilities with ongoing review of state compliance with Olmstead requirements. The following initiatives, funded in the FY 2003 budget and implemented on July 1, 2002, were the culmination of these various activities.
- Continued reduction of the waiting list for the Community Care Services Program (822 consumers; $4.1 million) and the mental retardation Medicaid waiver program (507 consumers; $8 million).
- The move of all people under age 21 from state mental retardation institutions into community residential services (65 consumers; $4.1 million).
- Provision of intensive family intervention services for severely emotionally disturbed youth who are at risk of institutionalization and their families (600 families; $3 million).
On January 31, 2003, the Atlanta Legal Aid Society and private attorneys filed a class action complaint in U.S. District Court on behalf of individuals with physical disabilities in nursing homes or who are at risk of nursing home placement. The lawsuit contends that the state has failed to make a "significant effort" to expand home and community-based services. The plaintiffs are on waiting lists for the state's Community Care Services Program and the Independent Care Waiver Programs, the two Medicaid home and community-based services programs in the state for people who do not have mental retardation.
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