Department News

DBHDD is committed to building and supporting a system of care for individuals with developmental disabilities and behavioral health challenges in Georgia. To achieve this goal, the department is building capacity in local communities to provide easier access to high-quality care.

As the department transitions individuals from the hospital system to community-based care, collaboration between hospitals and community resources is critical. To ensure that each transition is facilitated safely and with focus on individual needs, Commissioner Berry has appointed Dr. Charles Li as director of hospital operations. Dr. Li currently serves as DBHDD’s assistant commissioner of the Division of Developmental Disabilities. He was asked to lead the department’s hospital system because of his significant background in hospital operations and community programs. Dr. Li will direct activities at all DBHDD hospitals and will also serve as regional hospital administrator for Georgia Regional Hospital at Atlanta, one of the department’s busiest hospitals.

Berry has named Dan Howell as interim assistant commissioner of the Division of Developmental Disabilities. Most recently, Mr. Howell served as acting regional hospital administrator for Central State Hospital. Mr. Howell has extensive experience in program administration and has led similar transition initiatives across the country. DBHDD is conducting a national search to recruit and select both a new assistant commissioner for developmental disabilities and a regional hospital administrator for Central State Hospital.

These actions underscore the department’s confidence that Dr. Li and Mr. Howell will be invaluable assets during the transition to a community-based system of care. Under their leadership, DBHDD looks forward to strengthening bridges between hospital and community-based services and providing better access for all Georgians.

Dr. Candice M. Tate This week, DBHDD welcomes Candice M. Tate, Ph.D., as director of the Office of Deaf Services. Dr. Tate is a deaf psychologist fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). She brings over 15 years of experience in therapeutic and assessment services to both deaf and hearing populations. Her work on “Trauma in the Deaf Population: Definition, Experience, and Services” was published by the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors and has been used as a resource by DBHDD’s Office of Deaf Services.

The hiring of Tate reinforces the DBHDD’s commitment to ensuring that individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing have service accessibility equivalent to that of the hearing population. Tate’s background gives her a comprehensive outlook on culturally appropriate solutions to workforce and system needs across the state. Her informed perspective will help to refine the department’s service delivery model as DBHDD works with providers to employ a workforce that, wherever possible, specifically includes ASL-fluent staff.

Tate holds a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Western Michigan University and a doctorate in clinical psychology from Gallaudet University (2005). Over the past eight years, she has pursued her commitment of increasing consumer access to public mental health systems via training, consumer input, policy implementation and program evaluation. In 2008, she started Purple Monarch PLLC, which offers a full range of psychological services from therapy to assessment.

Tate’s own hearing loss was discovered when she was two and a half years old. She was placed in a mainstream school and did not learn ASL until she entered the clinical psychology program at Gallaudet. She developed a passion for helping people with access issues when she worked at a group home for individuals with developmental disabilities during her last two years of undergraduate studies. The experience inspired her to pursue a career in mental health focusing on linguistic and cultural accessibility.

Tate was raised in Montana but has worked across the United States with varied populations in a wide range of settings, including Rochester, NY; Washington, DC; Denver, CO; and rural Montana. Her exposure to different communities gives her a strong cross-cultural perspective. “I am committed to working within Georgia’s diverse deaf and hard of hearing communities to develop and expand an array of culturally and linguistically accessible services and technologies necessary to achieve overall health and well-being,” Tate said. She emphasizes the need for consumer input, “we will be listening directly to the communities and will develop these services based on their self-identified and assessed needs for services.”

Not unfamiliar with Georgia, Tate previously lived in Augusta for one year. She looks forward to being back in Georgia and is excited to join the DBHDD team. Her work will center on the implementation of meaningful system changes to deaf services at the state, regional and local level. “I feel honored to be a part of this change, and I believe that DBHDD has assembled a strong and qualified team that will successfully work together to achieve our vision and goals,” she said.

DBHDD is pleased to welcome Tate. Under her direction, Georgia will be well-positioned to become a leader in providing better access to behavioral health and developmental disability services for everyone the department serves.