f. Mental health provisions

Mental health provisions

2022 Regular Session HF2725 Chapter 99, Article 1 Effective: Various

Summary

This bill reflects the culmination of three years of work first started when a bill passed in 2019 creating a task force to evaluate and study community competency restoration programs and develop recommendations to address the needs of individuals deemed incompetent to stand trial. Briefly, the bill places the process in statute for when a person is found incompetent to proceed with their trial because of a mental illness or cognitive impairment. People will be assigned a forensic navigator to create “bridge plans” with the defendant. The bill provides clear directives and timelines on the supervision of defendants to protect community concerns and the constitutional rights of the defendant at the same time. Finally, it creates a new State Board of Competency Restoration.

The key mental health provisions in the bill are as follows: • Fund and create crisis stabilization beds for children and youth—currently, we only have crisis beds for adults; this will provide an option for children boarding in the ER but who do not need hospitalization • Increase funding by $2 million for school-linked mental health and youth shelter-linked mental health programs, providing mental health treatment where the children and youth are • Increase funding for the loan forgiveness program by $1.6 million for mental health professionals • $1 million for an African American mental health center in North Minneapolis to increase access to culturally informed care • $10.2 million for the adult mental health initiative grants to ensure that under the new formula no one receives less than what they are currently receiving • $9.6 million for mobile crisis services to build on the current system that covers all 87 counties but with inadequate funding cannot always respond in a timely way • $2.5 million for fund a program to provide supervision needed to become a mental health professional for free—finding and paying for supervision has been a major barrier for people completing their licensure requirements • $2.914 million for startup funds to create locked residential facilities for people deemed incompetent to stand trial • Renames and expands the children's intensive behavioral health treatment services to serve children who are at risk of residential treatment • $6,000 and then $480,000 additional in the base for first psychotic episode programs which are evidence-based programs that truly help young people experiencing psychosis

Implications

With the increasing needs in mental health in many different sectors, state investments may help.

Bill language

Chapter 99, Article 1: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/2022/0/Session+Law/Chapter/99/