Mental health services: involuntary treatment.

Existing law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, provides for the involuntary commitment and treatment of persons with specified mental disorders for the protection of the persons committed. 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. If certain conditions are met after the 72-hour detention, the act authorizes the certification of the person for a 14-day maximum period of intensive treatment, and then a 30-day maximum period of intensive treatment after the 14-day period. Existing law requires the professional person in charge of the facility providing the 72-hour evaluation and treatment or the intensive treatment to notify the county behavioral health director when the person is released and certain conditions apply. This bill would, for each person admitted for evaluation and treatment, require the facility providing the 72-hour evaluation and treatment to keep with the person's medical record contact information for an individual designated by the patient as their medical emergency contact, and would require that facility to develop a continuity of care plan for the person, which the facility shall make available to certain individuals and facilities, as specified. The bill would require, before the release of a person from the 72-hour detention or the intensive treatment, the professional person in charge of the facility providing the treatment to provide the county behavioral health director with the medical emergency contact information, the continuity of care plan, and the possible release date of the person, and would require the county behavioral health director to contact the person's medical emergency contact and provide that individual with the person's continuity of care plan. The bill would also require a county to offer a person who is released from involuntary detention after receiving 72-hour evaluation and treatment or intensive treatment, and who is homeless, a local crisis bed or recuperative care upon their release from the designated facility providing the involuntary treatment. By imposing new duties on county officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.