DeKalb County Commissioner Larry Johnson, in his role as the 2nd vice president of the National Association of Counties Organization (NACo), recently represented the county on a national level.
Johnson attended a leadership and executive directors meeting in Washington,D.C. and engaged with the Administration in a panel discussion on mental health, deregulation, immigration and community revitalization.
Johnson raised an issue regarding the Community Mental Health Act of 1963. The act was the first of several federal policy changes that helped spark a major transformation of the public mental health system by shifting resources away from large institutions toward community-based mental health treatment programs.
“A lot of times the things that we need
“Unfortunately, as the nation has experienced a decline in mental institutions, one of the unintended consequences for teens are the limited beds that are available to them,” Johnson said. “The Trump Administration vowed to look at how to increase bed space for teens that are dealing with mental health challenges.”