MHAC Priority Legislation

MHAC Position: Oppose

Author: Santiago

Date: 09/30/2022

Status: Passed

Mental health services: Would require the Department of State Hospitals to create a model discharge plan for counties and hospitals to follow when discharging those held under temporary holds or a conservatorship. The bill would require county mental health departments to collaborate with facilities and hospitals to develop, implement, and adhere to an adequate discharge plan that ensures continuity of services and care in the community for all individuals exiting holds or a conservatorship, and to implement that plan across the entire network of acute and subacute facilities by 2/1/2024. Would require the county discharge plan to require that an individual exiting a temporary hold or a conservatorship be provided with a detailed treatment plan that includes a scheduled first appointment with their referred service provider and that establishes a team of 2 or more service providers designated to assist the individual for up to 6 months. Would prohibit a county from discharging an individual from a hold unless the first follow-up appointment is scheduled and the appointment information is given to the individual. Would allow counties pay for the services authorized in Sections 5150 and 5250 to use funds from the Mental Health Services Fund when included in county plans. Would require the state Department of Health Care Services to issue guidance specifying which services authorized under the LPS Act may be paid by counties with funds from the Mental Health Services Fund. Would require the MHSOAC to develop, implement, and oversee a public and comprehensive framework for tracking and reporting spending on mental health programs and services from all major funding sources.

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MHAC Position: Oppose

Author: Hoover

Date: 04/18/2024

Existing law requires the Governor to create the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, and specifies the duties of the coordinating council to include creating partnerships among state agencies and departments, local government agencies, and specified federal agencies and private entities, for the purpose of arriving at specific strategies to end homelessness. Existing law requires agencies and departments administering state programs to collaborate with the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to adopt guidelines and regulations to incorporate core components of Housing First. This bill would repeal Housing First policies and related requirements, thereby removing the requirement on those state agencies and departments to incorporate core components of Housing First.

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MHAC Position: Oppose

Author: Wahab

Date: 04/22/2024

Expands the ability for licensed mental health professional to place a 5150 hold on someone. “Licensed mental health professional” means a psychiatrist, psychologist, licensed clinical social worker, licensed marriage and family therapist, or a licensed professional clinical counselor who has completed all requiredsupervised clinical experience.

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MHAC Position: Oppose

Author: Eggman

Date: 11/30/2022

Status: Died

LPS Act: Certification for intensive treatment: review hearing: This bill would authorize the evidence considered in the certification review hearing for a 14 day hold under the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act to include information on the person’s medical condition and how that condition bears on certifying the person as a danger to themselves or to others or as gravely disabled.

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MHAC Position: Oppose

Author: Eggman

Date: 11/30/2022

Status: Died

Conservatorships: gravely disabled persons: Existing law, the LPS Act, authorizes a conservator to be appointed for a person who is gravely disabled as a result of a mental health disorder or impairment by chronic alcoholism.. Existing law requires the officer providing the conservatorship investigation to investigate all available alternatives to conservatorship and to recommend conservatorship to the court only if no suitable alternatives are available. Existing law requires the officer to render to the court a written report of the investigation prior to the hearing. This report must be comprehensive and must contain all relevant aspects of the person’s medical, psychological, financial, family, vocational, and social condition, and information obtained from the person’s family members, close friends, social worker, or principal therapist. Existing law states that the court may receive the report in evidence and may read and consider the contents of the report. This bill requires the court to both receive the report into evidence and to consider the contents of the report in rendering its judgment. This bill also requires the officer to include in the report information about the historical course of the person’s mental disorder and adherence to prior treatment plans if the officer determines that this information has

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MHAC Position: Oppose

Author: Jones

Date: 04/22/2024

This bill would prohibit a person from sitting, lying, sleeping, or storing, using, maintaining, or placing personal property upon a street or sidewalk if a homeless shelter, as defined, is available to the person. The bill would also prohibit sitting, lying, sleeping, or storing, using, maintaining, or placing personal property within 500 feet of a public or private school, open space, or major transit stop, as specified. The bill would specify that a violation of this prohibition is a public nuisance that can be abated and prevented, as specified. The bill would also provide that a violation of the prohibition may be charged as a misdemeanor or an infraction, at the discretion of the prosecutor. The bill would prohibit a person from being found in violation of the bill’s provisions unless provided notice, at least 72 hours before commencement of any enforcement action, as specified. By imposing criminal penalties for a violation of these provisions, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

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MHAC Position: Oppose

Author: Roth

Date: 09/01/2022

Status: Vetoed

Acute Care Psychiatric Hospital Loan Fund. This bill would establish the California Acute Care Psychiatric Hospital Loan Fund to provide zero interest loans, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to qualifying county or city and county applicants for the purpose of building or renovating acute care psychiatric hospitals or psychiatric units in general acute care hospitals, as defined.

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MHAC Position: Oppose

Author: Eggman

Date: 04/26/2024

This bill would additionally require the determination of a person’s incapacity to refuse treatment with antipsychotic medication to remain in effect for the duration of the additional 14-day period or the additional 30-day period after the 14-day intensive treatment period, or all periods of treatment that are applicable.

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MHAC Position: Oppose

Author: Eggman

Date: 09/27/2022

Status: Passed

Involuntary commitment: intensive treatment: Under existing law, the LPS Act, when a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is determined to be a danger to themself or others, or is determined to be gravely disabled, that person may, upon probable cause, be taken into custody and placed in a facility for up to 72 hours for evaluation and treatment. Under existing law, if a person is detained for 72 hours under those provisions, and has received an evaluation, the person may be certified for not more than 14 days of intensive treatment. Existing law further authorizes a person to be certified for an additional period of not more than 30 days of intensive treatment if the person remains gravely disabled and is unwilling or unable to accept treatment voluntarily. Existing law requires the person to be released at the end of the 30 days, except under certain circumstances including: 1. The person agrees to receive further treatment on a voluntary basis; 2. the person is the subject of a conservatorship petition; 3. the person is the subject of a petition for post certification treatment of a dangerous person filed pursuant to Article 6 (commencing with Section 5300). This bill would authorize an additional 30-day treatment period if the person is still in need of intensive treatment and the certification for the additional 30-day treatment period has begun.

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MHAC Position: Oppose

Author: Eggman

Date: 04/26/2024

Existing law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, provides for the involuntary detention and treatment of persons with specified mental health disorders. Under the act, when a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is a danger to others, or to themselves, or gravely disabled, the person may, upon probable cause, be taken into custody and placed in a facility designated by the county and approved by the State Department of Health Care Services for up to 72 hours for evaluation and treatment. Existing law authorizes specified individuals, including professional persons designated by the county, to determine probable cause and take a person into custody pursuant to these provisions. This bill would authorize a county to designate a professional who is not a county employee or not contracted by the county to perform the above-described functions.

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MHAC Position: Oppose

Author: Portantino

Date: 09/02/2022

Notes: Watch *MHAC’s position changed to OPPOSE after amendments

Pupil Wellness Centers Grant Program: Would appropriate $1 billion from an unspecified fund to the Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide annual grants of up to $250,000 each to certain local educational agencies serving high school pupils to establish or improve pupil wellness centers to provide comprehensive medical and behavioral health services. Amended 8/15/22 to authorize $250,000,000 of MHSA funds to the State Controller to distribute to the Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide the grants.

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MHAC Position: Oppose

Author: Umberg

Date: 09/14/2022

Status: Passed

Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court Program: This bill would enact the Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Act, which would authorize specific people to petition a civil court to create a CARE plan and implement services to be provided by county behavioral health agencies, to provide behavioral health care, stabilization medication, and housing support to adults who have schizophrenia spectrum or other psychotic disorders and who lack medical decision-making capacity.

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MHAC Position: Oppose

Author: Eggman

Date: 06/15/2022

Status: Died

Mental health services: Gravely disabled: This bill would include under the definition of “gravely disabled” a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is unable to provide for the basic personal needs of personal or medical care or self-protection and safety.

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