Health
Proposed budget cuts a setback for state mental health safety net programs
Key services for Georgians with mental disabilities struggling to keep a roof over their heads are at risk as part of about $56 million in cuts to the state’s mental health department over the next two years. Those cuts figure into budget reductions across all state government agencies that Gov. Brian Kemp ordered last month. […]
Rome still coping with mental health challenges years after hospital closed
Rome, GA – It took two years for Tereasa Lowry to lock down a new apartment in Rome after she lost her house in 2009 during the recession. She’s battled severe bouts of depression since before grade school, and without her family’s support while she sought public housing, Lowry is certain she would have wound […]
Georgia’s poor, rural hospitals lose in lawmakers’ health care waiting game
Georgia lawmakers are again waiting, fingers crossed, for someone to provide an alternative to expanding Medicaid coverage to nearly 500,000 uninsured Georgians under the federal Affordable Care Act. The latest workaround, Georgia’s 2019 Patients First Act, is so much like a Utah plan the White House just rejected that it seems like it’s time to […]
House rural development study panel considers school mental health needs
Jasper, GA – The state sent $69 million to Georgia’s public schools this year to beef up physical security after a string of school shootings in other states. Now, a north Georgia superintendent says educators need more state aid to address the less tangible side of the issue. “If a student came to school with […]
Report: Ga. makes progress on mental health services, more needed
State-administered mental health services in Georgia made good strides in recent years, but more needs to be done to help people avoid homelessness and to protect them from neglect before federal oversight can be lifted. That is the conclusion of a court report written by independent reviewer Elizabeth Jones. The U.S. Northern District Court appointed […]
Panel reviews press coverage of anti-abortion bill at Monday night event
When Georgia became the latest Southern state to pass a strict anti-abortion bill this year, the intense glare of the national media’s attention shifted to the Gold Dome. The coverage yielded a spate of national and local stories speculating on the bill’s impact on women, health care access and Georgia’s economy. Could women be charged […]
Grant to Georgia College nursing program a remedy for rural health ills
A newborn might be in one room, a great grandmother in the next and an injured farmer in still another room. For Dr. Sallie Coke, this would just be any other day at the small-town clinic where she works in rural Lamar County, which is home to 18,000 people in middle Georgia. “It’s wonderful. You […]
Ga. opioid abuse treatment improves, but more can be done, audit says
Georgia’s made progress since a state report spotted significant barriers for those trying to access medical treatment for opioid abuse in 2017, just as the crisis killed a little more than 1,000 people in the state, according to an update. But the new report also found that more remains to be done. The pair of […]
New South Georgia medical school expected to boost rural health care
South Georgia’s first four-year medical school is set to start classes next week, marking a new institute that school staff and state officials hope will boost health care services in rural parts of the state. The new medical school, run by the nonprofit Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, is in Moultrie, an agricultural center of […]
Welcome to the Recorder: A fresh voice for Georgia news & commentary
When I told my longtime journalist friends my new job is to write a weekly opinion column and guide straight-up news coverage at the same time, it raised a few eyebrows. Their question: How do you oversee objective reporting when you’re also delivering opinions on what’s happening in the news? Since my days as a […]