ATLANTA — Families caught in the endless cycle of hospital visits and phone calls are pleading for change to Georgia’s mental health care system.
Channel 2’s Michael Doudna followed one family’s journey.
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On Memorial Day, Doudna first reported on Victoria Harris, a 25-year-old pregnant woman with schizoaffective disorder, who disappeared after walking out of a hospital.
Her family found her days later, but it was just the beginning of the story.
“We’ve been to all of them,” said Brittaney Bethea.
For Bethea, hospital doors are an all-too-common sight.
“We’ve been to Grady, to Piedmont, to Northside,” said Bethea.
“Over and over and over again, like upwards of 20 and 30 times,” she continued.
It’s a revolving door of care as she tries to help her sister, Victoria Harris.
“We can take a look at each other and not even say anything and kind of know what we’re thinking, bust out in a laugh,” said Bethea.
However, Harris started to experience hallucinations and delusions in college.
“It’s called schizoaffective disorder, the bipolar type,” said Bethea.
As Harris got worse, the relationship changed, and she started withdrawing.
“Every moment feels like, you know, my sister is missing,” said Bethea.
What began was a cycle, Harris would go into crisis, get to a hospital, be stabilized and then be discharged.
“And then psychosis happens again, and we just go back over and over again,” said Bethea.
Back in May, Harris who is five months pregnant walked out of Piedmont Hospital and was missing for 10 days.
When she was found, police arrested her on a Cobb County warrant.
“So, instead of routing her to the hospital like they typically do, she was routed to Atlanta Detention Center instead,” said Bethea.
The Cobb charges have since been dropped, but after her release doctors found she no longer qualified for a mental health hold known as a 1013 and went back on the streets.
“The system is really broken,” said Bethea.
“It’s really the same story we hear that over and over,” said Kevin Tanner, the Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
He said Georgia’s 1013 standards are high, requiring the person to be an imminent danger to themselves or others.
And once a patient is seen as stable, the burden of care falls on the individual.
“We can stabilize folks very well while they’re in jail, in custody or in our hospital or in a crisis center. But then what happens?” said Tanner.
Sometimes as people go through the system, the burden falls on local jails.
“I don’t believe any jail is set up for success when it comes to that,” said Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat.
He said nearly half of inmates need mental health help, and wait times for mental health evaluations can take months, and in some cases even years.
“It is sad to say that we’re in this situation, but we have to figure out how to get people additional help,” said Labat.
To stop the cycle, Tanner said the state could lower the standards for a 1013 hold to include someone who is off their meds and psychiatrically deteriorating, while also investing in programs focused on finding ways to keep people on their medication.
Other states including Florida have laws that allow people with mental illness who are severely neglecting their own well-being to be placed on an involuntary mental health hold.
But the balance is providing care while not infringing on free will.
“And that’s the real challenge, because you’re bumping up against trying to balance out the ability for someone to make their own medical decision,” said Tanner.
But for those like Bethea, she has watched as her sister has been at three hospitals, two jails and a mental health facility since May.
She wants the revolving door to stop so she can get her sister back.
“I’m just looking forward to the day that we can kind of get back to that,” said Bethea.
If you or someone you know needs mental health care, you can call or text the 988 hotline.
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