AB 815

This bill requires the Department of Health Services to allow law enforcement

to transport individuals to be detained for emergency detention or involuntary

commitment to the most convenient mental health institute, either Mendota Mental

Health Institute or Winnebago Mental Health Institute, if the individual is intended

to be detained at a mental health institute. Under current law, a law enforcement

officer or certain other persons may take an individual into custody for purposes of

emergency detention if the officer or other person has cause to believe that the

individual is mentally ill, drug dependent, or developmentally disabled, and that the

individual shows certain behaviors. The county department of community programs

must approve the need for detention and may not do so unless a psychiatrist,

psychologist, or other mental health professional has performed a crisis assessment

on the individual and agrees with the need for detention and the county department

believes the individual will not voluntarily consent to evaluation, diagnosis, and

treatment. Under current law, an individual may be detained for possible

involuntary commitment upon a three-person petition, which must allege that the

individual is mentally ill, drug dependent, or developmentally disabled, is a proper

subject for treatment, and is dangerous because the individual evidences certain

behaviors. If an individual is to be detained for emergency detention or before an

involuntary commitment proceeding, the law enforcement officer or other person

must transport the person for detention to a treatment facility approved by DHS or

the county department, if the facility agrees to detain, or to a state treatment facility,

which includes Mendota Mental Health Institute and Winnebago Mental Health

Institute. In 2014, DHS implemented a policy that Mendota Mental Health Institute

serves forensic male patients and only elderly adult civil patients while Winnebago

Mental Health Institute serves all other civil patients, including those detained

under emergency detention and involuntary commitment proceedings, and forensic

female patients.

The bill also requires DHS to collaborate with hospitals to develop a grant

program to establish regional mental health crisis centers to accept individuals for

emergency detention and to include a proposal for the grant program in its 2019-21

biennial budget request.