ENROLLED
ACT No. 591
2016 Regular Session
HOUSE BILL NO. 763
BY REPRESENTATIVES CARPENTER, COX, HUNTER, AND JACKSON AND
SENATOR BARROW
1 AN ACT
2 To enact R.S. 28:931 and 932, relative to healthcare services for persons experiencing
3 mental health or behavioral health crises; to authorize establishment of facilities to
4 be known as intervention and stabilization units; to provide for powers of human
5 services districts and authorities with respect to such facilities; to condition
6 establishment of any such facility upon appropriation of funds; to direct the
7 Louisiana State Law Institute with respect to certain designations; and to provide for
8 related matters.
9 Be it enacted by the Legislature of Louisiana:
10 Section 1. R.S. 28:931 and 932 are hereby enacted to read as follows:
11 §931. Definitions; purposes
12 A. As used in this Part, intervention and stabilization unit means a type of
13 crisis receiving center in which a staff of mental health and behavioral health
14 specialists provide a high level of screening and assessment to people experiencing
15 mental health or behavioral health crises.
16 B. The purposes of an intervention and stabilization unit include, without
17 limitation, all of the following:
18 (1) To properly connect patients experiencing mental health or behavioral
19 health crises to either acute or ongoing community-based treatment.
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1 (2) To diminish the need in a community for recurrent crisis services for
2 persons suffering from mental illness, substance abuse, or both conditions.
3 (3) To serve as a crisis continuum component that assists law enforcement
4 officers, hospital emergency departments, and jails by treating persons with mental
5 health and behavioral health conditions in an appropriate setting.
6 §932. Intervention and stabilization units; establishment and operation; duties of
7 human services districts and authorities
8 A. Human services districts and authorities are hereby authorized to establish
9 intervention and stabilization units in accordance with the provisions of this Section.
10 B. Subject to appropriation for this purpose, a human services district or
11 authority may establish and operate an intervention and stabilization unit in any
12 parish that meets all of the following criteria:
13 (1) The parish has a population of more than four hundred forty thousand
14 according to the latest federal decennial census.
15 (2) The parish experienced the closure of a hospital provided for in R.S.
16 17:1519.2 that had been operated by the Health Care Services Division of the LSU
17 Health Sciences Center-New Orleans.
18 C. Human services districts and authorities are hereby authorized, but are not
19 required, to establish any intervention and stabilization unit pursuant to this Section.
20 Any unit so established shall be licensed as a Level III (freestanding) crisis receiving
21 center in accordance with the provisions of R.S. 28:22 and LAC 48:I.5301 et seq.
22 D. No intervention and stabilization unit, as provided for in this Section,
23 shall be established by any human services authority or district unless and until the
24 legislature specifically appropriates funding for this purpose. Furthermore, no human
25 services authority or district shall divert any monies appropriated to the authority or
26 district for other purposes to establish or fund an intervention and stabilization unit.
27 Section 2.(A) The Louisiana State Law Institute is hereby directed to designate R.S.
28 28:911 through 920 as Part I of Chapter 21 of Title 28 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of
29 1950, and to entitle the Part "Human Services Districts and Authorities: General
30 Provisions".
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1 (B) The Louisiana State Law Institute is hereby directed to designate R.S. 28:931
2 and 932, as enacted by Section 1 of this Act, as Part II of Chapter 21 of Title 28 of the
3 Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, and to entitle the Part "Intervention and Stabilization
4 Units".
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA
APPROVED:
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