BILL NUMBER: AB 2038	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Eggman

                        FEBRUARY 20, 2014

   An act to amend Section 4094.5 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, relating to mental health.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2038, as introduced, Eggman. Community treatment facilities.
   Existing law requires the State Department of State Hospitals to
establish, by regulation, specified program standards for any
facility licensed as a community treatment facility and authorizes
the State Department of Health Care Services to adopt or amend
regulations pertaining to these program standards. Existing law
requires only seriously emotionally disturbed children for whom other
less restrictive mental health interventions have been tried, or who
are currently placed in an acute psychiatric hospital or state
hospital or in a facility outside the state for mental health
treatment, and who may require periods of containment to participate
in, and benefit from, mental health treatment to be placed in a
community treatment facility.
   This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to those
provisions.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 4094.5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is
amended to read:
   4094.5.  Regulations for community treatment facilities adopted
pursuant to Section 4094 shall include, but not be limited to, the
following:
   (a) Only seriously emotionally disturbed children, as defined in
Section 5699.2, for whom other less restrictive mental health
interventions have been tried, as documented in the case plan, or who
are currently placed in an acute psychiatric hospital or state
hospital or in a facility outside the state for mental health
treatment, and who may require periods of containment to participate
in, and benefit from, mental health treatment, shall be placed in a
community treatment facility. For purposes of this subdivision,
lesser restrictive interventions shall include, but are not limited
to, outpatient therapy, family counseling, case management, family
preservation efforts, special education classes, or nonpublic
schooling.
   (b) A facility shall have the capacity to provide secure
containment. For purposes of this section, a facility or an area of a
facility shall be defined as secure if residents are not permitted
to leave the premises of their own volition. All or part of a
facility, including its perimeter, but not a room alone, may be
locked or secure. If a facility uses perimeter fencing, all beds
within the perimeter shall be considered secure beds. All beds
outside of a locked or secure wing or facility shall be considered
nonsecure beds.
   (c) A locked or secure program in a facility shall not be used for
disciplinary purposes, but shall be used for the protection of the
minor. It may be used as a treatment modality for a child needing
that level of care. The use of the secure facility program shall be
for as short a period as possible, consistent with the child's case
plan and safety. The department shall develop regulations governing
the oversight, review, and duration of the use of secure beds.
   (d) Fire clearance approval shall be obtained pursuant to Section
1531.2 of the Health and Safety Code.
   (e) (1) Prior to admission,  any   a 
child admitted to a community treatment facility shall have been
certified as seriously emotionally disturbed, as defined in Section
5699.2, by a licensed mental health professional. The child shall,
prior to admission, have been determined to be in need of the level
of care provided by a community treatment facility, by a county
interagency placement committee, as prescribed by Section 4096.
   (2) Any county cost associated with the certification and the
determination provided for in paragraph (1) may be billed as a
utilization review expense.