Bill > H1821

This bill mandates that at least 12.5% of new placements in adult community residential programs funded by the Department of Mental Health (DMH) must be in programs offering both long-term mental health services and intermediate nursing care, as defined by the Department of Transitional Assistance, until 160 such placements are established and maintained according to a statewide plan. It also requires that when DMH inpatient beds are closed, particularly those for patients needing intermediate, skilled, or chronic disease hospital-level nursing care, the operational cost savings from those closed beds will be transferred to fund these community residential programs with medical/nursing components. The DMH is tasked with creating a five-year master plan, starting in fiscal year 2017, to develop at least 160 of these specialized community placements, aiming for at least 32 per year, subject to available funding, and must submit this plan and subsequent quarterly implementation reports to legislative committees. The plan should ensure these programs are comparable in size to existing DMH community programs, geographically distributed across the state, and detail the type of care, projected start dates, client numbers, and specific client placements. Additionally, the DMH must maintain a separate, updated waiting list for individuals seeking these medical/nursing care community residential placements.