Managed Care: Strengthening the Consumer Voice in Managed Care: VII. The Georgia Peer Specialist Program

The Surgeon General's landmark 1999 Mental Health Report gives consumers and their families a prominent place in the mental health system as advocates, participants in overseeing policy, and providers of services (1). Managed care programs, when adequately funded and wisely managed, can, should, and sometimes do promote all three objectives (2). The rationale for a more consumer-centric approach to managed care derives from a clinical prediction that services provided in this manner will lead to improved outcomes (3) and a view of democratic process that calls for robust citizen involvement beyond that provided by representative government alone (4).