Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission; revise the subcommittees

Georgia expands and extends behavioral health commission

Georgia’s Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission grows from 24 to 30 members. Its end date moves from June 30, 2025, to December 31, 2026, when its governing law also expires. The Governor appoints an addiction survivor who is a certified recovery specialist and an intellectual and developmental disabilities provider. The Senate President appoints a disability advocacy leader and someone who lost an immediate family member to overdose or fentanyl poisoning. The House Speaker appoints an accredited Georgia addiction-recovery nonprofit’s executive director and a person with intellectual and developmental disabilities or their parent. Five subcommittees cover children and teens, addiction, hospitals and short-term care, mental health courts and corrections, and intellectual and developmental disabilities. Addiction replaces involuntary commitment as a subcommittee focus; intellectual and developmental disabilities replaces workforce and system development. The chair appoints commission members to these groups and can create additional groups. Each group can include up to two outside members when necessary and consistent with the commission’s governing law. These changes do not directly change household benefits or access to services.