Hearing DetailsJoint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery

Event Details

Status:

Completed

Event Date:

Monday, October 6, 2025

Start Time:

1:00 PM

Location:

A-2 and Virtual

Event Description

Involuntary Commitment

The Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery will conduct a hybrid public hearing on October 6, 2025, from 1pm to 5pm in A2 on bills relating to the following topic: Involuntary Commitment.

This hearing will be chaired by Senate Chair Velis. The Committee will accept written, virtual, and in-person testimony submitted on the matters listed on the docket below:

*Please be advised that the schedule and agenda are subject to change at the discretion of the chairs per Committee rules.

**Further be advised that all House bills considered during this hearing must be reported on by December 5, 2025 subject to extensions consistent with House Rule 27.

Questions regarding House bills on the docket should be directed to House Chair Domb’s office by contacting Staff Director Lily Stowe-Alekman via email at Lily.Stowe-Alekman@mahouse.gov.

Questions regarding Senate bills on the docket should be directed to Senate Chair Velis’ office by contacting Legislative Director and General Counsel Jocelyn Schafer, Esq. by email at Jocelyn.Schafer@masenate.gov.

***INSTRUCTIONS FOR REGISTRATION / TESTIMONY***

The public is invited to participate in this hybrid hearing, which will be streamed live and archived on the General Court website, https://malegislature.gov/.

All persons who wish to testify in-person or virtually are strongly encouraged to sign up in advance by completing this form. Persons who wish to testify virtually must register in advance by using this form no later than 5:00pm on Thursday, October 2, 2025. Further instructions will be sent to those who register to testify virtually. The Committee will provide a link to join the public hearing to those who sign up to testify virtually via Microsoft Teams.

Individuals who miss the deadline to pre-register for testimony may appear on the day of the hearing and sign-up to speak in-person on forms provided by Committee staff outside of the hearing room. When all pre-registered individuals have been called to testify, the presiding Chair will then call any individuals who sign-up on the day of the hearing.

LEGISLATOR AND PUBLIC OFFICIAL TESTIMONY: Legislators and public officials are also required to pre-register to testify virtually. The presiding Chair, at their discretion, may take legislators and public officials out of turn. The committee will extend this courtesy to legislators and public officials only, and it will not be expanded to include other individuals or panels.

ORAL TESTIMONY - TIME LIMIT: Each individual registered to testify shall be afforded 3 minutes to speak. Individuals offering testimony on multiple bills must do so within the 3 minute time limit. The presiding Chair, at their discretion, may further limit the time for testimony.

ORAL TESTIMONY – PARTICIPATING AS A PANEL: Each individual participating as part of a panel must fill-out the pre-registration form separately and completely. Each member of a panel must fill out the appropriate section of the pre-registration form indicating that they will be participating as part of a panel. The presiding Chair will permit either fully in-person panels or fully-remote panels only. Questions related to the registration of panels should be directed to the presiding Chair’s staff at Jocelyn.Schafer@masenate.gov.

ORDER OF TESTIMONY: The presiding Chair, at their discretion, will determine the order of testimony during the course of the hearing. It is the responsibility of the individuals registered to testify to be prepared to speak when called upon by the presiding Chair. In the event that an individual testifying is called by the presiding Chair and that person is not logged into the Teams platform or present in the hearing room, the presiding Chair will move on and call the next individual or panel.

Hearings will be recorded and posted publicly, archived on the Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery webpage for the duration of the 194th Legislative Session.

For questions regarding hearing logistics, please contact the presiding Chair’s staff via email at Jocelyn.Schafer@masenate.gov.

WRITTEN TESTIMONY – DO NOT FILL OUT THE FORM: For individuals wishing to provide written testimony ONLY, please do not fill out this form. Written testimony is encouraged and will continue to be accepted after the hearing until the relevant bill is acted upon. Written testimony may be submitted electronically via e-mail to the following: jointcmte-mentalhealth@malegislature.gov. For testimony submitted by email, please include the bill number and “TESTIMONY” in the subject line of the email, as well as your name, address, phone number, and organization, if any, on the submitted testimony. Registration is not required to submit written testimony.

Written testimony may be physically mailed to the House and Senate Chairs at the below addresses:

CHAIR MINDY DOMB

JOINT COMMITTEE ON MENTAL HEALTH, SUBSTANCE USE AND RECOVERY

ATTN: LILY STOWE-ALEKMAN

24 BEACON STREET, ROOM 33

BOSTON, MA 02133

CHAIR JOHN C. VELIS

JOINT COMMITTEE ON MENTAL HEALTH, SUBSTANCE USE AND RECOVERY

ATTN: JOCELYN SCHAFER

24 BEACON STREET, ROOM 513

BOSTON, MA 02133

Please be advised that all written testimony submitted will be read by Committee Members and staff and may be made publicly available at the discretion of the Chairs and per Committee rules. The Committee may limit or redact testimony that includes sensitive personal information or information that may jeopardize the health, wellness or safety of the testifier or others.

Persons submitting written testimony containing sensitive personal information or information intended only for the Committee should prominently indicate whether such written testimony should be made public availability or if the person desires the public availability of all or part of such written testimony to be limited by the Committee.

Those who do not plan to testify but want to watch the public hearing may view the live stream under the Hearings & Events section of the legislative website.

ACCESSIBILITY ACCOMMODATIONS: The Committee will work to coordinate reasonable accommodations required to ensure that people with disabilities are able to participate fully in the hearing process. Timely requests for accessibility accommodations, such as assistive listening devices and systems, sign language interpreting services, closed captioning and transcription services, will be provided upon request. Requests for services should be submitted by completing the state house accessibility form, https://malegislature.gov/StateHouse/AccessibilityForm/. If you have any questions regarding a submitted request for accessibility accommodations, please email the presiding Chair’s staff at jocelyn.schafer@masenate.gov.

If you have Accessibility needs, click here.

Item Name	Start Time	Duration	Webcast
Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery - 10-6-2025	10/6/2025 1:00 PM	04:36:40

Involuntary Commitment 1:00pm - 5:00pm

Bill	Bill Title	Sponsor
H.2194	An Act petitioning for an emergency restraint bill	Donald R. Berthiaume, Jr.
H.2198	An Act reducing emergency department boarding	Marjorie C. Decker
H.2197	An Act ensuring access to addiction services	Marjorie C. Decker
H.2199	An Act ending unnecessary hospitalizations	Marjorie C. Decker
H.2206	An Act enabling physician assistants to authorize psychiatric holds and ensure adequate training on their use	Kate Donaghue
H.2210	An Act to provide more timely treatment of inpatient mental health care	Kenneth I. Gordon
H.2213	An Act relative to treatment for substance use disorder	Bradley H. Jones, Jr.
H.2219	An Act expanding access to mental health services and strengthening risk assessment protocols	Kathleen R. LaNatra
S.1387	An Act enabling physician assistants to authorize psychiatric holds and ensure adequate training on their use	John J. Cronin
S.1401	An Act to provide more timely treatment of inpatient mental health care	Cindy F. Friedman
S.1402	An Act ensuring access to addiction services	Cindy F. Friedman
S.1381	An Act expanding access to mental health services and strengthening risk assessment protocols	Michael D. Brady
S.1409	An Act to reform mental health supports and increase public safety	Robyn K. Kennedy

Present (16)

Mindy Domb (HOU)

John C. Velis (SEN)

Nick Collins (SEN)

Cynthia Stone Creem (SEN)

Julian Cyr (SEN)

Kate Donaghue (HOU)

Kelly A. Dooner (SEN)

Michelle M. DuBois (HOU)

Steven S. Howitt (HOU)

Mary S. Keefe (HOU)

John F. Keenan (SEN)

Robyn K. Kennedy (SEN)

Christopher M. Markey (HOU)

John Francis Moran (HOU)

Sean Reid (HOU)

Steven George Xiarhos (HOU)

Absent (4)

Colleen M. Garry (HOU) *

Russell E. Holmes (HOU) *

David K. Muradian, Jr. (HOU) *

Susannah M. Whipps (HOU) *

Hearing DetailsJoint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery

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