Harvey Barksdale was first diagnosed with a mental illness when he was locked up as a juvenile offender at the Augusta Youth Development Campus in 1973.

But a lack of follow-up care when he got out led to a life of drugs and crime that he pulled out of only when he decided to get treatment in 2004.

If he had received treatment earlier, "I probably would not have went down the road I went," he said.

Officials and members of a state commission on mental health in Georgia would like to prevent more young offenders from following that road.

The Governor's Commission on Mental Health Service Delivery met Tuesday at the Augusta YDC to talk about early intervention and getting treatment for those who need it, both inside and outside the fence.

It is part of an ongoing effort to revamp mental health care in Georgia that will continue for a few years, said B.J. Walker, the commissioner of the state Department of Human Resources, which oversees mental health services. Mrs. Walker is on the commission, along with Corrections Department of Commissioner James Donald, advocates and family members.

"This is allowing all of us to get into the room and try to look across all of the different systems and understand, is there a set of issues and problems that is going to emerge out of this conversation?" Mrs. Walker said. "Are there some significant things we can do to move the ball forward? And then can we identify those things that are longer-term, perhaps, but urgent to get done?"

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the state's mental health system. Allegations of poor care that might have contributed to patient deaths surfaced last year.

A Justice Department spokeswoman confirmed the investigation Tuesday but, because it is an open investigation, could not comment further.

"It wouldn't matter to me who's looking at us," Mrs. Walker said. "We need to focus on the right work. And define the right work, in the hospital setting, in the community setting. If you're doing the right work, you can pass whatever scrutiny comes your way."

Consultants at the Medical College of Georgia have studied all seven of the state's mental hospitals and provided recommendations that are being implemented, Mrs. Walker said. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue has proposed an "unprecedented" $36 million for mental health care in his budget for the next fiscal year.

A Justice Department investigation in 1997 led to a revamping of how mental health services are provided in the state Department of Juvenile Justice, which spent $12.6 million on treatment in fiscal year 2007. More than half the 29,000 admissions to the system that year resulted in a mental health referral, officials said.

But there are still struggles to get juveniles into treatment once they leave the system, to find and coordinate care with community resources or even to get timely appointments for some of them, said Richard S. Harrison, the director of the Office of Behavioral Health for Juvenile Justice.

"We've got to do a better job," he said. "We're not hitting the mark now."

Mr. Barksdale said he had been "in and out" of reform schools and prison, getting released the last time April 29, 2004.

The next day, "I was back down on the corner selling drugs, smoking dope, everything I thought I was big enough to do, because I still had not faced my mental illness," he told the commission.

He is training to become a certified peer specialist to help others like him.