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Mental Health Intervention in Georgia
Mental health intervention in Georgia, beyond the 1013.
For Georgia families who have heard the words “Form 1013” or “order to apprehend” and need to know what they actually set in motion, what you can start yourselves, and how a prepared, voluntary plan fits before and after.
In Georgia, the shorthand is a number. Hospitals, deputies and probate clerks all say “1013,” and families quickly learn it. The form gets your loved one to an emergency receiving facility for an examination. It does not, on its own, get them into treatment.
What happens after that exam, and in the weeks before it, is where G3 works: preparing the family, confirming the right psychiatric care, and guiding a voluntary conversation, with no money from any program shaping the advice.
If this is an emergency
Call 911 for violence, a weapon, an overdose or a suicide attempt. For a crisis short of that, call or text 988, or the Georgia Crisis and Access Line at 1-800-715-4225, which can dispatch a mobile crisis team and locate an open crisis bed. Plan once everyone is safe.
O.C.G.A. Title 37
What the 1013 and the 2013 are
Georgia keeps mental illness and substance use in separate chapters of Title 37, and each has its own emergency form. The 1013 is the certificate authorizing transport of a person with mental illness to an emergency receiving facility, under O.C.G.A. 37-3-41. The 2013 is its counterpart for a person who is drug dependent or alcoholic, under 37-7-41. The Athens-Clarke County Probate Court lays out both sections side by side.
Georgia’s behavioral health agency, DBHDD, has published a decision tree for the emergency admission process that notes the forms may be signed by a physician and by other licensed clinicians, among them psychologists and licensed clinical social workers. In practice the 1013 is usually signed by someone who has just seen your loved one in an emergency department, a clinic or a crisis unit. Once signed, the person is taken to an emergency receiving facility, and the probate courts in Augusta and Cobb County both note that the examination there must take place within 48 hours.
A peace officer can also bring a person to an emergency receiving facility. And a family that cannot get a clinician to see their loved one has a third option, built for exactly that situation.
The order to apprehend: the route families start
Georgia’s probate courts can issue an order directing any peace officer to take a person into custody for evaluation. The order can rest on an unexpired physician’s certificate, or on sworn affidavits from at least two people who personally observed the person within the preceding 48 hours and believe involuntary treatment is needed (37-3-41(b) for mental illness, 37-7-41(b) for alcohol and drugs). Courts commonly call this a two-party affidavit.
The petition goes to the probate court of the county where your loved one is found. Officers take the person to the nearest available emergency receiving facility, or to a physician who has agreed to examine them. Athens-Clarke’s court notes that the order expires seven days after it is executed. Augusta’s probate court adds a practical caution: if your loved one is already in jail, probate court typically will not intervene.
Two-party affidavits ask families to describe specific, recent behavior under oath. That is hard to do in the middle of a crisis. We help relatives organize what they have seen, and we are candid when a situation does not appear to meet the standard. We are not attorneys, and we will point you to a Georgia lawyer when the stakes call for one.
After the examination
From evaluation to a court order, step by step
Emergency receiving facility
A physician examines your loved one within 48 hours of arrival. If they do not meet the criteria, they are discharged, or they may sign in voluntarily.
Evaluating facility
If continued involuntary care looks necessary, the person is transferred for an evaluation period that DBHDD’s process map lists as five days, excluding weekends and holidays.
Petition and hearing
The facility, not the family, files the petition. Augusta’s probate court explains that a hearing follows within 7 to 12 days of filing.
The court’s options
Discharge, involuntary outpatient treatment, or involuntary inpatient treatment for up to six months, sometimes followed by outpatient care.
Georgia law lets a court order involuntary outpatient treatment, not only hospitalization, and the Athens-Clarke court notes that the standards for a doctor’s certificate, police delivery and the probate court’s emergency order were broadened so that a person meeting either the inpatient or the outpatient standard can be brought for evaluation. That matters for families whose loved one is not violent but is clearly deteriorating and refusing care.
An outpatient order still depends on a provider who will hold the person to it, and on a person who shows up. It works far better when your loved one has already met the team and has some say in the plan. Our guide to psychiatric levels of care explains how outpatient, intensive outpatient and residential options differ, so you can weigh what the court might order against what a voluntary plan could offer.
Court-ordered outpatient care in Georgia
How a planned intervention fits around Georgia law
A 1013 answers one narrow question: does this person need an emergency evaluation today? An intervention asks a slower one: what would it take for them to choose care? Georgia families use the two in different orders.
Instead of an order to apprehend. Your loved one is unwell and refusing help, but no one has seen behavior that would support sworn affidavits. A rehearsed family conversation, with a confirmed psychiatric bed or program, may be the only realistic route that does not depend on things getting worse first.
With the order ready. The family prepares an intervention and, separately, understands the two-party affidavit process, so that if risk rises the next step is already mapped.
After discharge from an emergency receiving facility. Many examinations end in release. Those first days afterward, when the experience is fresh and often frightening to the person who went through it, are when Matt prepares the family to offer a voluntary next step. Our guide to high-acuity presentations helps families spot the patterns behind repeated crises, and involuntary psychiatric pathways compares Georgia with other states.
When the 2013 is the form in question
For alcohol and drug dependence, Georgia’s process runs on parallel tracks: the 2013 certificate and the two-party affidavit under 37-7-41. Probate courts in Augusta and Cobb County describe the standard as reason to believe the person is mentally ill or abusing drugs or alcohol, along with risk of imminent harm or an inability to care for their own safety.
Families often aren’t sure which form fits, because the drinking and the psychiatric symptoms arrived together. The answer that matters more is clinical: a program that treats both. Our guide to co-occurring disorders explains why the psychiatric side usually has to lead, and our Georgia interventionist page covers substance use intervention from Atlanta to Savannah.
Georgia crisis lines and public lookups
911 for immediate danger. 988 by call or text. DBHDD notes that GCAL has been the home of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in Georgia.
Georgia Crisis and Access Line, 1-800-715-4225. Around the clock, GCAL staff provide phone intervention, dispatch mobile crisis teams, help locate open crisis or detox beds and link callers to urgent appointments. DBHDD describes its crisis system, including crisis stabilization units with an average stay of about six days.
Licensed facilities. The Department of Community Health’s Healthcare Facility Regulation division licenses Georgia health facilities, and its GaMap2Care and Find a Facility tools let you look up a license before your loved one is admitted.
Our standard. A license tells you a program is legal, not that it fits. We speak with clinical leadership before recommending any Georgia program.
Getting to Georgia, and getting to care
G3 is based in Austin, Texas. Preparation starts by phone and video the day you call, and Matt flies in for the intervention, most often through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL), or Savannah/Hilton Head International (SAV) for coastal families. South Georgia frequently means a drive from either.
The right program may be in Georgia or several states away. A person in a psychiatric crisis should never make that trip alone, so our sober transport companions stay until intake is complete. Treatment navigation is how we choose the destination with no referral fee involved, and our guide to interstate intervention logistics helps when relatives live in different states. One flat fee, in writing before you commit, with travel at actual cost.
Common questions
Georgia families ask us about the 1013.
Can a family member 1013 someone in Georgia?
How long can someone be held on a 1013?
What is the difference between a 1013 and a 2013?
Our son was released after the evaluation. What can we do now?
Can Georgia courts order outpatient treatment instead of a hospital?
Who answers GCAL, and when should we call it instead of 988?
Keep reading
Georgia pages and guides for the next decision
The next step is a conversation
You do not have to figure this out alone.
One confidential call with G3 begins it. No pressure, no judgment, just a path forward.