New Children’s Mental Health Law

On August 21, Governor Patrick signed An Act Relative To Children's Mental Health (Chapter 321 of the Acts of 2008 ) into law. This legislation will make important changes to the current children's mental health system in Massachusetts, making it easier for young people living with mental illness to access care and receive services.

Key provisions:

• The secretary of health and human services will convene a monthly meeting of agencies within the executive office of health and human services, the department of early education and care, and the department of elementary and secondary education, and will publish a monthly report on the status of children awaiting clinically-appropriate behavioral health services.  The report will include the number of children with MassHealth who are awaiting psychiatric hospitalization in hospital emergency rooms and the average wait time; the number of children in psychiatric hospitals awaiting post-hospitalization residential placement or community-based services, and the number of children temporarily placed and awaiting appropriate longer-term placement and an estimate of the numbers of available psychiatric hospital beds, residential school placements, group homes and foster home placements, and how long those beds were available.

• The law establishes a children’s behavioral health advisory council within, but not subject to control of, the executive office of health and human services.  The council will advise the governor, the general court and the secretary of health and human services.
  The council will be chaired by the commissioner of mental health, and include the commissioner of children and families, the commissioner of youth services, the commissioner of mental retardation, the commissioner of public health, the commissioner of elementary and secondary education, the commissioner of early education and care, the commissioner of insurance, the director of Medicaid, and the child advocate, representatives from each of a number of professional and advocacy organizations including the Parent/Professional Advocacy League, Massachusetts Psychological Association, Massachusetts Association of Behavioral Health Systems, the Massachusetts chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics; New England Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Corporations of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. The council will also include, among others, consumers of behavioral health services who are under age 22. The council is also mandated to represent the culturally and linguistically diverse populations served by the executive office and its agencies. The council is charged with making legislative and regulatory recommendations regarding best practices, implementation of interagency initiatives with the goal of promoting a comprehensive, coordinated, high-quality, safe, effective, timely, efficient, equitable, family-centered, culturally-competent and a linguistically and clinically appropriate continuum of behavioral health services for children, examining the extent to which children with behavioral health needs are involved with the juvenile justice and child welfare systems, continuity of care, and racial and ethnic disparities.

• There shall be geographically-based interagency review teams to collaborate on complex cases when a child, which shall include a person under the age of 22 who is disabled or has special needs, may qualify for services from multiple state agencies. Cases may be referred to the team by a state agency, the juvenile court or the child’s parent or guardian. The teams will determine which services, including case management services, are appropriate for the child and who shall provide those services. If the team is unable to reach a consensus decision, the matter will be referred to the regional directors of the respective agencies for resolution.  The regional directors have up to 10 business days of the referral to meet and must issue their decision within 3 business days of the meeting.  If the regional directors are unable to resolve the case and the disagreement involves matters solely within the purview of the executive office of health and human services, the team shall notify the secretary of health and human services who shall render a decision within 30 days of the notice.  Parents then have the right to appeal the decision to the with the division of administrative law appeals which will conduct an adjudicatory proceeding and order any necessary relief consistent with state or federal law.

-From: Health Care For All News -- September 2008, 09/18/2008, and the text of the law retrieved at: http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/seslaw08/sl080321.htm.

 

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