Georgia Mental Health Institute


The Georgia Mental Health Institute was a psychiatric hospital which operated from 1965–1997 near Emory University in Druid Hills near Atlanta Georgia. It was located on the grounds of the Briarcliff Estate, the former residence of Asa G. Candler, Jr., the son of the founder of Coca-Cola.
Emory and the state of Georgia jointly developed the GMHI. Emory doctors provided some of the mental health services at GMHI, and some residents and fellows received part of their training in psychiatry there. Emory also had its own pediatric psychiatric outpatient programs based at the facility. The university also had 10 faculty scientists conducting 18 research studies at GMHI, focused on mental health, brain and central nervous system diseases. At its closing it had 141 beds and a $24.5 million budget. Due to rising costs, the Georgia Department of Human Resources proposed that the hospital close. They decided that they could send GMHI patients to other hospitals nearby and use the $24.5 million budget in other community mental health services.
After the institute closed, the 42 acre campus was purchased by Emory University from the state of Georgia for US $2.9 million. The university planned to turn the property into a biotechnology research and business development centre. Unofficially the campus was referred to as "Emory West", and the university considered either renovating the existing 17 buildings or constructing new ones. Plans for the second campus were scaled back after faculty expressed a desire to remain at the main campus, but the university still planned to build the EmTech Bio Sciences Center as of 2000. In 2011, three of the old GMHI buildings, at the rear of the property, were demolished.
Some of the scenes for the Netflix series Stranger Things were filmed here.