AbleChild Georgia Exhibit Highlights Arts Resolution for Better Mental Health on Eve of Passage

AbleChild Georgia Exhibit Highlights Arts Resolution for Better Mental Health on Eve of Passage

Republished with permission from AbleChild

In a late‑night session under the Gold Dome, Georgia opened an exciting new chapter in behavioral and mental health by embracing the creative arts as a powerful tool to transform children’s lives and improve mental health outcomes. House Resolution 1007, sponsored by Representative Todd Jones, represents a clear win for children in Georgia by elevating art and creative expression as meaningful supports for their emotional well‑being.

House Resolution 1007 moved forward in a late‑night Georgia legislative session, underscoring the urgency lawmakers placed on elevating the creative arts as a resource for children’s mental health and overall well‑being. The measure affirms that structured creative arts programs, including art therapy, can offer children safe ways to process stress, trauma, and emotional challenges while building resilience.

A broad coalition of lawmakers, arts leaders, health advocates, and community organizations paved the way for HR 1007, including Rep. Todd Jones, Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, Rep. Kim Schofield, Rep. Lydia Glaize, Rep. Katie Dempsey, and Rep. Angie O’Steen, alongside partners from Healing Arts Atlanta, BLKHLTH, the Carter Center, the Woodruff Arts Center (Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, High Museum of Art), South Arts, the emerging Arts + Health/NeuroArts network, and artist‑advocates who spoke at the Capitol.

AbleChild’s “Able and Gifted Child” exhibit arrived at exactly the right moment within this broad coalition effort, providing a vivid, visual testament to children’s creativity and potential as the resolution was taken over the finish line as a clear win for Georgia’s children.

The resolution recognizes the power of supporting the creative arts to improve the lives of children and strengthen mental health outcomes across the State of Georgia. It encourages the development and expansion of art‑based programming in community settings, schools, and clinical environments to better serve children and families, signaling a shift away from a narrow, medication‑first approach toward more holistic, child‑centered supports.

AbleChild local members presented its “Able and Gifted Child” exhibit inside the Georgia State Capitol, highlighting children’s creativity and potential when they are supported through non‑pharmaceutical approaches like art, rather than being quickly labeled or medicated. The exhibit’s timing during the HR 1007 helped crystallize, for lawmakers working late into the night, why creative, non‑drug‑based supports belong at the center of policy for children’s behavioral and mental health.

Advocates from parent organizations, arts institutions, and mental health groups frame HR 1007 as a forward‑looking step that centers children’s humanity, creativity, and long‑term well‑being. With the resolution advancing, children in Georgia stand to benefit from policies that recognize their creativity as a strength and their art as a path to healing, offering a model other states can look to as they rethink how to support young people’s behavioral and mental health.

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AbleChild is a 501(3) C nonprofit organization that has recently co-written landmark legislation in Tennessee, setting a national precedent for transparency and accountability in the intersection of mental health, pharmaceutical practices, and public safety.

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