SENATE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

SENATE, No. 1692

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

 

ADOPTED MAY 8, 1997

 

 

Sponsored by Senators BASSANO, CODEY, Connors, Palaia, Ciesla and Matheussen

 

 

An Act concerning funding for community mental health and developmental disability services and supplementing Title 30 of the Revised Statutes.

 

      Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

      1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Community Mental Health and Developmental Disability Services Investment Act."

 

      2. The Legislature finds and declares that:

      a. It is desirable for persons with serious mental illness, including children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances, as well as persons with developmental disabilities, to receive treatment in their home community;

      b. The availability of a range of community-based services will enable many persons who might otherwise require continued institutionalization to return to the community and allow the State to reduce its longstanding reliance on State inpatient care for adults with serious mental illness, and children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances, as well as persons with developmental disabilities. As more services are provided at the local level, there is a compelling State interest in assuring that these services are coordinated and that resources are provided throughout the State; and

      c. As expenditures for State inpatient resources are reduced, additional funding should be invested in community-based mental health services for persons with serious mental illness, including children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances, as well as community-based services for persons with developmental disabilities.


      3. As used in this act:

      "Children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances" means individuals under 18 years of age who meet criteria established by the commissioner, which shall include children and adolescents who are in psychiatric crisis, or children and adolescents who have a designated diagnosis of mental illness under the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and whose severity and duration of mental illness result in substantial functional disability.

      "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Human Services.

      "Community mental health and developmental disability services" means the following services for persons with serious mental illness, or for persons with developmental disabilities, as appropriate:

      a. emergency and crisis services provided in programs licensed or approved by the commissioner;

      b. case management services;

      c. outpatient services which provide an adequate level of treatment and rehabilitation to persons with serious mental illness;

      d. residential services, other than inpatient services, provided in programs licensed or approved by the commissioner and in long-term health care facilities licensed by the Department of Health and Senior Services, including, but not limited to, assisted living residences, comprehensive personal care homes and residential health care facilities;

      e. psychiatric rehabilitation services, including, but not limited to, supported employment, supported living, psychosocial clubhouse and other partial care modalities;

      f. other community support services, including, but not limited to, consumer advocacy, consumer operated self-help activities, drop-in centers, and family education and support services;

      g. services which are directed toward the alleviation of a developmental disability or mental illness, or toward the social, personal, physical or economic habilitation or rehabilitation of a person with a developmental disability or mental illness, and provided by an agency or program approved by the commissioner; and

      h. other services as approved by the commissioner.

      "Department" means the Department of Human Services.

      "Developmental disability" means a developmental disability as defined in the "Developmentally Disabled Rights Act," P.L.1977, c.82 (C.30:6D-1 et seq.).

      "Facility" means a State psychiatric hospital or developmental center operated by the department.

      "Persons with serious mental illness" means individuals who meet criteria established by the commissioner, which shall include persons who are in psychiatric crisis, or persons who have a designated diagnosis of mental illness under the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and whose severity and duration of mental illness result in substantial functional disability. Persons with serious mental illness shall include children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances.

 

      4. a. The commissioner shall take such actions as are necessary to ensure that as a mental health facility closes that all funds be redirected to services in the community thereby increasing the State's financial support to community mental health services for its citizens, except for money already earmarked for institutional use through the Marlboro Redirection Plan.

      b. The commissioner shall ensure that when individuals with a developmental disability move into the community from a developmental center affected by a significant service reduction, funding utilized for the individual in the developmental center shall be used to fund the individual's community placement.

      c. Any funding from the developmental center placement not needed to fully fund the community placement for that individual shall be directed toward the reduction of the waiting list for services in the Division of Developmental Disabilities in the department.

 

      5. All monies received by the State from the sale of facility property shall be earmarked exclusively for capital and equipment costs associated with the development of community placement for persons with serious mental illness or developmental disabilities, according to criteria to be established by the commissioner.

 

      6. The commissioner, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), shall adopt rules and regulations to effectuate the purposes of this act.

 

      7. This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

 

"Community Mental Health and Developmental Disability Services Investment Act."