Georgia Advocacy Office, Inc. The Georgia Advocacy Office (GAO) is a private non-profit corporation. Its mission is to work with and for oppressed and vulnerable individuals in Georgia who are labeled as disabled or mentally ill to secure their protection and advocacy. GAO's work is mandated by Congress, and GAO has been designated by Georgia as the agency to implement Protection and Advocacy within the state. Click here for directions to our office. OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST: Election News The Georgia Advocacy Office will operate extended hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on November 4th during the General Election. Please call us if you have any disability-related voting problems. In metro Atlanta, call (404) 885-1234 (Voice/TTY). Other areas, call toll free (800) 537-2329 (Voice/TTY). Click here for details on Voter Information and on when you need to register to vote to participate in the general election. ****************************** Current crisis in Georgia’s state institutions Many people have read the recent series of articles in the Atlanta Journal Constitutions titled "A Hidden Shame: Death in Georgia's Mental Hospitals." (Click here if you would like to read the series of articles.) Like most of you, our initial reaction is to be horrified at the loss of life and at the conditions reported. Through the routine monitoring that GAO engages in, GAO advocates have an opportunity to witness many of these neglectful conditions within institutional settings. When advocates witness incidents of abuse and serious neglect we investigate the situation and step in to protect the vulnerable individual from further harm. GAO believes that the only way to prevent abuse and neglect is by involving vulnerable people in the life of the community. The highest threat that any group of people can face is to be congregated and separated away from the rest of society. Some people have concluded that the current problems with Georgia’s institutions can be fixed with more funding – more staff, larger facilities, etc. It is our belief, based on experience, that the problem of abuse in institutional settings cannot be fixed with any amount of funding. GAO recently sent a letter to key State Legislators to express our concerns about the current crisis in Georgia’s mental health system. Click here to read the letter outlining our concerns about the current crisis in Georgia’s state institutions. ****************************** On June 22, 1999 the United States Supreme Court held in Olmstead v. L.C. that unjustified isolation of individuals with disabilities is properly regarded as discrimination based on disability.Click on this link for a brief history of the Olmstead decision. ****************************** Accessibility Guidelines Published on July 23, 2004. For details visit the Access Board website and read individual chapters or download the entire 161 pages.
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GAO SITE INDEX: Through our Programs we help secure Protection and Advocacy for... ..People with Developmental Disabilities ..Individuals with Mental Illness Beneficiaries of Social Security .. Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injuries
Publications: Guardianship and its Alternatives in Georgia as text document Guardianship and its Alternatives in Georgia as a pdf Promoting Inclusion as text document PromotingInclusion.pdf as a pdf
Other Items of Interest... Employment Opportunities at GAO
Please send any comments about this site to webmaster@thegao.org.
A Note on the World Wide Web: GAO supports the World Wide Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. You will find a subset of these guidelines web-implemented at The Center for Applied Special Technology.
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