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<v 0>Item that came down the pike late was, uh,</v>

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speaker Walton's mental health bill.

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And the whole idea of mental health has not been treated the same

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way as physical health,

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or there hasn't been a law that said insurance companies and others need to

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treat mental health the same way they do physical health.

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This bill kind of closes that loop a little bit. Can you kind of give us a,

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a 50,000 foot view on, on what,

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what that bill is gonna mean for the average Georgia, Georgia?

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<v 1>Yeah.</v>

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Georgia has all has been for years at the bottom when it comes to treat mental,

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mental health period. Uh, and it it's all come. Unfortunately,

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we we've swept this issue under the, a rug. And of course,

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every time we do that, we fall further and further behind on treating these, uh,

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illnesses. And of course it hits home with me with some of these, um,

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these kids that are going through, uh, uh, puberty and,

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and some changes in life whenever it's very difficult for some of these kids to

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deal with that. And, and, uh, we took head on, it was a, it was a, um,

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uh, something to speak Rawton felt very strongly about.

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We changed the perspective from, um, uh,

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from treating it as mental illness to just treating as an illness. Uh,

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we shouldn't treat it any differently than diabetes or blood pressure or any of

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these other illnesses.

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And we changed the as what insurance companies are going to pay. So there,

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if there is an insurance diagnosis, if you will, for mental health,

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it shall be treated the same way as, um, as a person going in for, um,

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for diabetes and blood pressure and those kinds of physical illness. It is, uh,

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something that we would, we were serious about.

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We spent an enormous amount of time on it.

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I think you're gonna see us in the future spend, uh, quite a bit of money on it,

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too. It's another issue that we've, uh, that we've lagged behind if you will,

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and, and, uh, putting our money where our mouth is. And,

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but the biggest thing that we did this year is we stopped sweeping the issue of

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mental health under the rug. We hope we can change the stigma,

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uh, of mental health to be nothing more than just a, uh,

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another disease that needs to be treated. And.

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<v 0>I, yeah. Oh, go ahead.</v>

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<v 1>That's a big step that.</v>

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<v 0>Way. Yeah. And I know that it's something,</v>

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that's obviously a speaker Rawton put his way behind it. I know it's,

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it's important to you. I know Jesse Petri is a champion of that, uh, Ben Watson.

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So it's, it's kind of near and dear to our own delegation. Of course,

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mental health here in Chatham county is, is a big challenge, uh,

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particularly as it, as it comes to, to, to treatment.

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And the fact that we end up with so many people at the,

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the Chatham county jail who are struggl with, with mental illness and it,

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it just seems to be a never ending cycle.

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So this is one of these that this is an incremental step, but an important step.

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Is that a fair way to look at it?

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<v 1>You know, not only that a lot of this stuff, strangely enough,</v>

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started right here in Chatham county,

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you might recall about three to four years ago, Helen Stone.

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This was her mantra with the county commission.

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And we had so many people that the only place that they could go whenever there

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was mental illness, um, and they were acting out or whatever, um,

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create misdemeanors, um,

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they were going to jail and that's the wrong place to treat the,

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these folks that they're not committing a crime and Helen to her credit

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got us to put some money in a diversion center so that whenever PE, uh,

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police officers train, um, and they,

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and they are trained to tell the difference, um,

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whenever somebody's having a mental challenge is to make sure that they're,

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they, they don't go to jail. They go to a diversion center.

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Cause every time you go to jail,

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every single one of those tax dollars are property tax dollars.

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So if we diverted those people to a treatment center, whenever they're having,

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especially an acute, um, situation,

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we can get these folks treatment in a proper way. Uh,

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and of course that turns into a federal draw down on too,

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and a healthcare issue. So it, uh, you know, kudos to Helen Stone,

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kudos to the county, uh, all the county commission and the,

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and the sheriff of course is, um, was right swear in the middle of this issue.

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Uh, and because of course he doesn't want to have to treat these folks there,

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the improper place to treat them in jails, uh,

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quite a team in Chatham county. Cause you started all this stuff right here,

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wound up in a culmination of some of the bill that we did this year. Right.