Frontline COVID-19 Provider Mental Health Resiliency Act of 2021: health care providers: mental health services.

Existing law establishes the Department of Consumer Affairs under the direction of the Director of Consumer Affairs. Existing law establishes various boards within the department for the licensure and regulation of various health care providers, including physicians and surgeons and nurses. Existing law generally provides for mental health services, including the Bronzan-McCorquodale Act, which contains provisions governing the organization and financing of community mental health services for persons with mental disorders in every county through locally administered and locally controlled community mental health programs, and the Mental Health Services Act, an initiative statute enacted by the voters as Proposition 63 at the November 2, 2004, statewide general election that establishes the continuously appropriated Mental Health Services Fund to fund various county mental health programs. This bill would require the director to establish a mental health resiliency program, as specified, to provide mental health services to licensed health care providers who provide or have provided consistent in-person healthcare services to COVID-19 patients. The bill would require the relevant boards to notify licensees and solicit applications for access to the program immediately upon the availability of services. The bill would require an applicant to make an attestation that states, among other things, that the applicant is an eligible licensee, as defined. The bill would make an applicant who willfully makes a false statement in their attestation guilty of a misdemeanor. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2025. The bill would require the department and relevant boards, no later than June 30, 2025, to report to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature prescribed information regarding the program. The bill would exempt the records associated with the mental health resiliency program from disclosure pursuant to the California Public Records Act. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.