TITLE 37 MENTAL HEALTH

Section 1. Governing and Regulation of Mental Health, 37-1-1 through 37-1-100.

ARTICLE 1 GENERAL PROVISIONS

37-1-2. Legislative findings as to mental health, developmental disability, and addictive disease problems and services; role of county governing authorities; purpose of this chapter and Chapter 2 of this title.

1. The General Assembly finds that the state has a need to continually improve its system for providing effective, efficient, and quality mental health, developmental disability, and addictive disease services. Further, the General Assembly finds that a comprehensive range of quality services and opportunities is vitally important to the existence and well-being of individuals with mental health, developmental disability, or addictive disease needs and their families. The General Assembly further finds that the state has an obligation and a responsibility to develop and implement planning and service delivery systems which focus on a core set of consumer oriented, community based values and principles which include, but are not limited to, the following:
   1. Consumers and families should have choices about services and providers and should have substantive input into the planning and delivery of all services;
   2. A single point of accountability should exist for fiscal, service, and administrative issues to ensure better coordination of services among all programs and providers and to promote cost-effective, efficient service delivery and administration;
   3. The system should be appropriately comprehensive and adaptive to allow consumers and their families to access the services they desire and need;
   4. Public programs are the foundation of the service planning and delivery system and they should be valued and nurtured; at the same time, while assuring comparable standards of quality, private sector involvement should be increased to allow for expanded consumer choice and improved cost effectiveness;
   5. Planning should begin at the local level and include local government, consumers, families, advocates, and other interested local parties;
   6. The system should ensure that the needs of consumers who are most in need are met at the appropriate service levels; at the same time, prevention strategies should be emphasized for those disabilities which are known to be preventable;
   7. The system should be designed to provide the highest quality of services utilizing flexibility in funding, incentives, and outcome evaluation techniques which reinforce quality, accountability, efficiency, and consumer satisfaction;
   8. The functions of service planning, coordination, contracting, resource allocation, and consumer assessment should be separated from the actual treatment, habilitation, and prevention services provided by contractors;
   9. Consumers and families should have a single, community based point of entry into the system;
   10. Consumers, staff, providers, and regional planning board and community service board members should receive ongoing training and education and should have access to key management resources such as information systems and technical and professional support services; and
   11. The department is responsible for ensuring the appropriate use of state, federal, and other funds to provide quality services for individuals with mental health, developmental disabilities, or addictive disease needs who are served by the public system and to protect consumers of these services from abuse and maltreatment.
2. Local governments, specifically county governing authorities, have provided outstanding leadership and support for mental health, developmental disability, and addictive disease programs, and the General Assembly finds that their investments, both personal and capital, should be valued and utilized in any improved system. As such, the state and any new governing structure should take special precautions to ensure that the county governing authorities have an expanded level of input into decision making and resource allocation and that any services or programs should continue to use and expand their use of county facilities and resources wherever appropriate and possible.
3. The purpose of this chapter and Chapter 2 of this title is to provide for a comprehensive and improved mental health, developmental disability, and addictive disease services planning and delivery system in this state which will develop and promote the essential public interests of the state and its citizens. The provisions of this chapter and Chapter 2 of this title shall be liberally construed to achieve their purposes.

(Code 1981, §37-1-2, enacted by Ga. L. 1993, p. 1445, § 6; Ga. L. 1995, p. 10, § 37; Ga. L. 2002, p. 1324, § 1-6; Ga. L. 2009, p. 453, § 3-1/HB 228.)