Company Profile
Company Overview
Advantage Behavioral Health System is an entity of the State of Georgia, governed by a Community Service Board. Advantage serves ~9,000 individuals with mental illnesses, addictive diseases and developmental disabilities in a 10 county area with Athens-Clarke County Georgia, a college town, as its center. It is a client-centered organization with an annual budget of $23 million and 400 employees. Quality service to internal customers, clients, and constituencies is our goal.
Company History
The predecessor to Advantage Behavioral Health systems, called the Northeast Georgia Center was established in 1972.
Changes at the state level between 1972 and 1986 included the following. In 1972 the Division of Mental health became part of the Department of Human Resources. The Division underwent renamings in 1976, 1986. Locally, area mental health and developmental disability programs existed under the leadership of county boards of health. Each Center was fairly independent, even though the structure of a 10 county area was already established as Northeast Georgia Center.
In 1994, House Bill 100 created a significant change for Mental Health, Addictive Disease and Developmental Disabilities Services. This bill created community service boards (CSBs), which were separate from the Boards of Health. CSBs were established under their own governing boards, with representation from each county served within its auspices, and representation by family members of or former consumers of services. Local mental health centers were no longer a part of state government. Rather, the state contracted with CSBs to provide services. This change began moving individual county centers toward a centralized governance system.
The legal status of CSBs was refined in 2002 by defining CSBs by statue as public corporations and instrumentalities of the state, through the Department of Human Resources (DHR), Division of Mental Health, Addictive Disease, and Developmental Disabilities.
July 1, 2009 the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities was created through HB228, taking the division out of DHR, and placing it directly under the Governor through an appointed Commissioner.