Macon mayor proposes mental health program to address ‘root cause’ of violent crime

Macon-Bibb County Mayor Lester Miller announced a potential partnership Friday morning to provide free mental health services to people in need.

“You can’t really address violent crime without going to the root causes, and one of those is mental health,” Miller said. “We believe that by targeting 300 to 500 families in those areas, we can make a dramatic impact in our crime rate in the future.”

The program, called Macon Mental Health Matters, would provide a variety of mental health support services to neighborhoods that have been identified through data. Miller said he would ask the county commissioners to approve a one-year, $600,000 contract with the Southern Center for Choice Theory to provide the services.

“The data tells us that we have several communities in Macon-Bibb County who need more assistance than others. They’re more challenged from a financial standpoint and from a crime standpoint, and we’ve identified these areas and we’re going to have a mental health group that’s going to be targeting those areas, mainly our youth and our youth parents,” Miller said.

Services could include anger management, conflict resolution, mental health counseling and parent counseling.

Places, such as Booker T. Washington Community Center, Pendleton Homes, Bloomfield-Gilead Recreation Center and Rosa Jackson Recreation Center, are being considered as possible locations for the mental health clinics, Miller said.

County commissioners will have a chance to approve the initiative Tuesday during their committee meeting, Miller said.

“This will not be a one size fits all program,” Miller said, in a news release. “We want to make sure people get the assistance they need in a setting in which they are comfortable.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2021 at 11:34 AM.