NAMI Central Georgia unveils Georgetown a new residential housing facility for the mentally ill
"One of the things we need most are beds. We need roofs over those beds," said State Representative Todd Jones.
WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Georgetown a new residential housing facility built to house people with mental illness created by NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Central Georgia had its grand opening Friday.
The ceremony begun with speeches from various speakers who helped with the project followed by a ribbon cutting and house tour.
NAMI Central Georgia is the only NAMI affiliate owned and operated in the state of Georgia and according to the official NAMI website NAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.
Paula Watkins Executive Director, CEO of NAMI Central Georgia says they have been here over 40 years and we spoke with her about how it all started.
“We were started by families who were concerned about what’s going to happen to our children when we’re gone. Who’s going to care for them? Who’s going to love them like their own? So they got together and started this organization, with the hopes that when they’re long gone, there’s somebody that’s looking after their children who have a mental illness,” said Watkins.
She also says there were many struggles along the way, but they got through it and have even bigger plans on the way.
Located at 209 Elberta Road off Highway 247 in Warner Robins the Georgetown project was funded by NAMI Central Georgia and a Community Development Block Grant made possible by Warner Robins. Additional funding of $500,000 was awarded from the DBHDD (Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities) form a budget passed by the state and approved by Governor Brian Kemp to be used to offer additional mental health services.
We also spoke with Todd Jones State Representative in the Georgia General Assembly about the project.
“Right now when you look at the challenges that we have in this country on mental health and on substance abuse, but sometimes substance abuse is not, I’ll say, considered as much as mental health, but we have a huge mental health and substance abuse issue in this state and the country. In addition, we have dual diagnosis issues, which is basically an individual with both of those challenges. So we need a lot of infrastructure to be able to support those individuals as they’re going through their journey to recovery and one of the things we need most are beds. We need roofs over those beds. So having this project here in Warner Robins, I can’t say enough about that,” said Jones.
“I also want to throw a real big compliment, not just out to the state in terms of supporting it, but also out to the city of Warner Robins and Mayor Patrick. She’s done a marvelous job in motivating her staff and motivating the city to partner with the state to do projects like this with a great charity like NAMI of Central Georgia,” he continued.
For more information you can visit NAMI Central Georgia’s website here.
