Fulton Board of Commissioners Chair Robb Pitts said the county invest in healthcare with a new behavioral health crisis center and a mental health mobile unit.
Pitts made the announcements during his State of Fulton County address at the Council for Quality Growth breakfast on May 10.
Fulton County committed $15 million in capital funding and donated an existing facility for the center, he said. He thanked Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones for her leadership in securing state funding for the center at the current Oak Hill Child, Family and Adolescent Center.
The county also annually invests $16 million in mental health care, he said.
Pitts also announced the launch of Fulton County’s new mental health mobile unit, which was parked outside the Flourish Atlanta event venue for review after his address.
Another way in which the county wants to remove barriers to healthcare access came through the launch of the Fulton Cares Mobile App, which Pitts called a “one-stop shop to all health and human services funded by Fulton County.”
The app is available in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
Pitts said jus before the pandemic emergency ended, two hospitals closed in Central and South Fulton County. The county partnered with the Morehouse School of Medicine and its president, Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, to investigate the effects these closures Wellstar’s Atlanta Medical Center in Old Fourth Ward and Atlanta Medical Center South in East Point.
“We now have a literal healthcare desert in Central and South Fulton County, which limits healthcare access for thousands of residents,” Pitts said.
The hospital closures made existing health disparities even worse, he said.
“Because of these disparities, an average resident in Central and South Fulton County lives five years less than their neighbors in North Fulton… No one should die early because of their zip code,” he said.
The county has invested approximately $2 billion over the last 50 years in another of its partners, Grady Hospital. They are working together to open two additional primary clinics in Central and South Fulton, he said.
Grady’s new neighborhood health centers will be located at Lee + White Outpatient Center, 1000 Lee St. SW, Atlanta, and at Cascade Outpatient Center, 3355 Cascade Road, Atlanta.
