BILL NUMBER: AB 50 CHAPTERED 09/30/06 CHAPTER 884 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE SEPTEMBER 30, 2006 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR SEPTEMBER 30, 2006 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 29, 2006 PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 22, 2006 AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 21, 2006 AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 10, 2006 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 31, 2006 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 31, 2006 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 26, 2006 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 23, 2006 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 4, 2006 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 3, 2005 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Leno DECEMBER 6, 2004 An act to add Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 13974.5) to Part 4 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, relating to victims of crime, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof to take effect immediately. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 50, Leno Victim compensation: trauma services. Statutory provisions that were repealed as of January 1, 2005, authorized the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board to enter into an interagency agreement with the University of California, San Francisco, to establish a victims of crime recovery center at the San Francisco General Hospital to demonstrate the effectiveness of providing comprehensive and integrated services to victims of crime. This bill would make legislative findings about the effectiveness of the services provided by the Trauma Recovery Center established as a pilot project under these provisions. It would reauthorize this interagency agreement for the purpose of actually providing these services not just in a demonstration capacity. It would appropriate for this purpose $1.3 million from the Restitution Fund to the board for the 2006-07 fiscal year. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute. Appropriation: yes. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) Without treatment, approximately 50 percent of people who survive a traumatic, violent injury experience psychological or social difficulties. Untreated psychological trauma often has severe economic consequences, including overuse of costly medical services, loss of income, failure to return to gainful employment, loss of medical insurance, and loss of stable housing. (b) The Trauma Recovery Center at San Francisco General Hospital/University of California, San Francisco, is an award-winning, nationally recognized program created in 2001 in partnership with the State of California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board. The center was established as a four-year pilot project to develop and test a comprehensive model of care as an alternative to fee-for-service care reimbursed by victim restitution funds. It was designed to increase access for crime victims to these funds. (c) During the Trauma Recovery Center's four-year history, its accomplishments include: (1) Identifying and treating 854 crime victims. (2) Increasing the rate by which sexual assault victims received mental health followup services, from 6 percent to 71 percent. (3) Successfully linking 53 percent of patients to legal services, 40 percent to vocational services, 31 percent to safer and more permanent housing, and 22 percent to other financial entitlements. (4) Improving cooperation with police, including an increase in police reports filed by sexual assault victims from 42 percent to 71 percent. (5) Increasing return to employment by 56 percent of victims compared to victims who did not have Trauma Recovery Center services. Many of these people resumed paying taxes and escaped the spiral into bankruptcy, loss of housing, and loss of medical insurance. SEC. 2. Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 13974.5) is added to Part 4 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, to read: CHAPTER 6. Victims of Crime Recovery Center 13974.5. (a) The California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board shall enter into an interagency agreement with the University of California, San Francisco, to establish a victims of crime recovery center at the San Francisco General Hospital for the purpose of providing comprehensive and integrated services to victims of crime, subject to conditions set forth by the board. (b) This section shall not apply to the University of California unless the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, make this section applicable. (c) This section shall only be implemented to the extent that funding is appropriated for that purpose. SEC. 3. The sum of one million three hundred thousand dollars ($1,300,000) for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 2006, is hereby appropriated from the Restitution Fund to the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board for the implementation of the interagency agreement specified in Section 13974.5 of the Government Code for the purpose of continued funding for the Trauma Recovery Center at the San Francisco General Hospital. SEC. 4. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are: In order to ensure the uninterrupted provision of vital services to victims of trauma, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.