Amendment ID: S2519-20-R1

Redraft Amendment 20

High Acuity Behavioral Health and Dual Diagnosis Pilot Program

Messrs. Pacheco, Montigny, Feeney, Brady and O'Connor move that the proposed new draft be amended by inserting after section 57 the following section:-

“SECTION 57A. For the purposes of this section, the term “dual diagnosis” shall mean a mental illness and a substance abuse problem occurring simultaneously in the same individual.

There may be, on the campus of Taunton state hospital, a behavioral health emergency department relief pilot program to accept medically stable, high acuity behavioral health and dual diagnosis patients from emergency departments in the southeast region of the commonwealth. Medically stable patients presenting in an emergency department with a high acuity behavioral health condition or a dual diagnosis should be transferred to this pilot program if another appropriate setting cannot be located within 4 hours of admission to the emergency department. Patients admitted to the pilot program shall be cared for until an appropriate placement is found that meets the patient’s needs not more than 14 days after admission to the pilot program. The program shall be operated and staffed by the department of mental health as needed to provide appropriate care. Program protocols and a staffing plan shall be developed during the first 6 months following the effective date of this act by a committee including the department of mental health, the department of public health, the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Massachusetts, Inc., the Massachusetts Nurses Association and the Emergency Nurses Association. The pilot program may operate for a period of not more than 2 years. The department of mental health shall file a report with the joint committee on mental health, substance use and recovery during the second year of the program to evaluate the success of the program in decreasing emergency department overcrowding in the southeast region of the commonwealth and the quality of care provided in the program. The report may be drafted by an independent entity, utilizing data from the department of mental health and local hospitals in the southeast region of the commonwealth.”.