Mental health chief to retire

ATLANTA -- The head of Georgia's mental health agency plans to retire this year after three decades of work in the state's juvenile justice, mental health and child welfare systems.

Gwen Skinner, who has faced underfunding and criticism since taking the helm of the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases in 2004, announced Wednesday she will leave in the fall.

Investigations by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution have concluded that abuse, neglect

and poor medical care contributed to the 136 mental health patient deaths from 2002 through 2007.

In May, the U.S. Justice Department cited Georgia's "unabated" failure to address dangerous conditions in state mental hospitals that have caused preventable deaths, injuries and illnesses.

In August, Gov. Sonny Perdue announced a sweeping reorganization of state social services, a plan that would include a new agency dedicated to mental health care. The division is now under the Department of Human Resources. Mr. Perdue said he will ask the Legislature to approve the reorganization this year.

Despite the problems, Ms. Skinner remains well-regarded by some mental health advocates.

"I think Gwen Skinner is a person who has done an honorable job under horrific circumstances," Sherry Jenkins Tucker, executive director of the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network, told the Journal-Constitution. "The budget shortfalls have been difficult."

Two months ago, Ms. Skinner told members of a mental health commission that Georgia's state psychiatric hospitals operate under a chronic deficit that contributes to staff shortages. She said the seven state-run hospitals have operated at an average annual budget deficit of $11 million for eight years.