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Mental Health in Georgia
By Pamela Permar-Shierling
I have been hearing for years that mental health treatment in Georgia is deplorable. For the past several years or so I have experienced Georgia’s mental health situation up close and it’s not pretty.
I have a friend who is the guardian for her schizophrenic nephew. He did not develop symptoms until his early 20s.
He has a home and up until January 2025 he lived there. He would wander away frequently and my friend spent a lot of time keeping tabs on him.
He would let anyone come in, eat his food, sleep at his house, and steal whatever he had. He is pretty much non verbal. Many homeless persons took advantage of him. My friend was constantly making sure that no one had taken up residence in his home. She spent thousands on cameras, security systems, and fencing.
He was arrested on a very minor misdemeanor charge on January 23, 2025. Because he refused to take his meds when he was at home, my friend decided to leave him in the Glynn County Detention Center and work to get him placed into Georgia Regional Hospital in Savannah.
There were meds that helped him but he wasn’t receiving them at the Detention Center. My friend was finally able to convince the mental health care persons at the jail to give him the meds that worked. One size does not fit all.
It took 14 months to get a Glynn County State court date for him the point of which was to get a court order to move him to Georgia Regional Hospital. His State Court date was this past June and the judge did order him to Georgia Regional.
Fourteen months is a long time to sit in jail waiting for a court date. It’s not fair to him and it isn’t fair to the Glynn County Sheriff’s Office to have to deal with mentally ill persons.
I have no idea why the Glynn County State Court date took so long. It just did.
And he will be in jail longer simply because he is not able to take care of himself. It’s the safest place for him.
Georgia Regional requires a 444 day wait from the date of the court order before accepting anyone. So it will be almost another year before he gets the mental health help he needs.
This past July Sheriff Neal Jump spoke at a Golden Isles Republican Women’s meeting.
Sheriff Jump told that group, of the 526 inmates currently housed in Glynn’s detention center, 145 are under mental health treatment.
“10 of these persons are in and out of jail every seven days. They have no place to go,” he said.
“20 of the 145 belong in a psychiatric facility. They need professional help,” Jump said.
We all see the homeless wandering around Glynn County. I receive the Brunswick Police Dept. daily reports. The officers spend much of their time moving the homeless out of parks and off business door steps. I believe many of these people need mental health treatment.
We can do what we can to help someone who is going through a rough spot but most of us are not equipped to deal with mental illness.
With the possible exception of the Atlanta area, the rest of Georgia is bereft of mental health infrastructure.
We don’t have the facilities or the personnel.
According to a Feb. 2026 article in Georgians for a Healthy Future: since 2010 Georgia invested over $256 million into expanding its community-based crisis system.
Where has it gone?
On Monday, Sept. 28 the Coastal Republican Women’s Club will host Nora Lott Haynes, Christine Harness, Mark Taylor, MS, LPC, Janel Hollard, LCSW, ACS, CCTP-II, Jenna Kennedy, Captain Jeff Williams and Sgt. Trevor Depp. The topic: Treatment and Recovery not jail.
Great article Pam and very informative.