ATLANTA – State Representative Imani Barnes (D-Tucker) recently reintroduced the “EmPATH Georgia Act,” legislation originally introduced as House Bill 913, during the 2024 legislative session. This year’s version, House Bill 109, provides for a 5-year pilot program that would require the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities to coordinate with the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) to establish a grant program for creating emergency psychiatric assessments, treatment and healing (EmPATH) units in hospitals. House Bill 109 would further require grant funding for the creation, development and operation of at least two EmPATH units, one in a rural county and the other in an urban county.
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