Five-Year Pilot Program for EmPATH Units in Hospitals

A bill to update the part of the Code of Georgia about mental health.

• Code of Georgia: These are the rules or laws for the state of Georgia that say what people in Georgia can and cannot do.

• Mental Health: how people think, feel, and react to life’s problems. Just like taking care of your body, your mind and emotions need care too.

If passed, this bill will set up a five-year program for testing mental health issues in emergencies so they can be treated, and places to heal in hospitals called “EmPATH units”.

This bill explains terms linked to big mental health struggles and services to help people through them.

It also explains emergency psychiatric assessment, treatment, and healing (EmPATH) units and what needs to be in place for them to work, including:

• Offering mental health help for people who are really having a hard time.

• Quick and to the point tests for treatment by psychiatrists within a day.

  • Psychiatrists: doctors who help people with mental health problems. They can listen, give advice, and prescribe medicine to help people feel better.

• Other treatments people may need to help them feel better.

If passed, this bill would create services available all day, every day, which could replace going to the hospital, which is the main option right now.

The bill clarifies the difference between counties that are in cities and counties that are more rural based on how many people live there.

The Department of Community Health will manage money given to hospitals for EmPATH units.

• The Department of Community Health: a government group that helps people get healthcare, including doctors, hospitals, and insurance. They make sure communities have the healthcare they need.

The bill rules to make sure EmPATH units meet the baseline for how they care for people and how they are run.

This bill, if passed, makes it so at least one EmPATH unit is in both a rural and an city county.

EmPATH units will take people in when they are having emergencies and need help, but they won’t give treatment.

This bill leaves places that help people feel better when they’ve gone through something really bad, out from certain requirements 

Hospitals can ask for money and donations for the five year program.

If this bill passes, a report on how good the program is doing will need to be turned in by December 31, 2029, to different people working in the government.

The program will wrap up five years after it starts

This bill also updates definitions about options for adults struggling with their mental health to live in a place in order to get full time help. These updates make it clear what is and is not included.

If this bill is passed, any laws that go against it will be gotten rid of.