Amendment #906 to H4000

Beds to meet the Commonwealth's mental health needs

Representatives O'Day of West Boylston, Cronin of Easton, Barrows of Mansfield, Donahue of Worcester, Madden of Nantucket, Heroux of Attleboro, Keefe of Worcester, Vega of Holyoke, O'Connell of Taunton and Khan of Newton move to amend the bill in section 2, in item 5095-0015 by striking out the following “provided further, that the department shall maintain not less than 626 continuing care inpatient beds in its system in fiscal year 2015; and provided further, that of these 626 beds, 45 beds shall be continuing care inpatient beds on the campus of Taunton state hospital” and inserting in place thereof the following “Provided further, that the department shall maintain not less than 738 inpatient beds in its system in fiscal year 2015; and provided further that of these 738 beds, 45 beds shall be continuing care inpatient beds on the campus of Taunton state hospital; provided further that 60 beds shall be added at Taunton state hospital to be used for the creation of a crisis stabilization unit which will provide evaluation, stabilization, and referral to behavioral health patients who might otherwise board in emergency rooms or other inappropriate settings, a female forensic unit, a male forensic unit and a pilot program to address unmet inpatient mental health needs; provided further that the 52 unopened beds at the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital be opened, including 26 of which shall be used for a Difficult to Manage unit.”