Bill > A00137

This bill, known as "The Supportive Interventions Act", introduces comprehensive changes to New York's mental health law to improve hospitalization, care coordination, and assisted outpatient treatment for individuals with severe mental illness. The bill expands the definition of "serious harm" to include substantial inability to meet basic needs and psychiatric deterioration, and broadens the criteria for evaluating a person's need for mental health intervention. It introduces new provisions allowing more professionals like psychiatric nurse practitioners and clinical social workers to participate in mental health assessments, and creates a more flexible approach to involuntary treatment that emphasizes individual potential and least restrictive interventions. The bill requires hospitals and psychiatric facilities to review patients for potential assisted outpatient treatment before discharge, mandates notification of community mental health providers about patient admissions and discharges, and requires the Office of Mental Health to provide training on the new law's implications. The legislation aims to reduce "revolving door" hospitalizations, prevent premature deaths, enhance public safety, and provide more compassionate and effective mental health care, while maintaining a commitment to increasing community-based mental health services and respecting individual rights.

Health and Social Services

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/A137