ENROLLED
2016 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 112
BY REPRESENTATIVES CARPENTER, BAGNERIS, BERTHELOT, BOUIE, GARY
CARTER, ROBBY CARTER, COX, FRANKLIN, HALL, HUNTER, JEFFERSON,
JONES, LYONS, MARCELLE, MCFARLAND, MORENO, NORTON, PIERRE,
PYLANT, REYNOLDS, SMITH, THIBAUT, AND WILLMOTT
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To urge and request the Capital Area Human Services District to conduct a study of systems
for providing appropriate mental health and behavioral health treatment in the capital
region as an alternative to hospitalization or detention in jails or other correctional
facilities of persons in mental health or behavioral health crisis, and to report
findings of the study to the Capital Region Legislative Delegation and the legislative
committees on health and welfare.
WHEREAS, access to health care, including mental health and behavioral health
services, is a major public health concern throughout Louisiana; and
WHEREAS, this public health concern is very prominent in the capital region, as the
Earl K. Long Medical Center, which was the state-owned public hospital in Baton Rouge,
closed in 2013, and the city's only remaining centrally located hospital closed its emergency
department in 2015 due to its inability to cover the cost of treating the overwhelming number
of uninsured patients that it began to see in the aftermath of the closure of Earl K. Long; and
WHEREAS, as evidenced by the final passage of House Bill No. 1493 of the 2010
Regular Session and final adoption and concurrence of House Concurrent Resolution No.
129 and Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 21 of the 2015 Regular Session, the legislature
has expressed serious concern regarding the issue of access to health care in the capital
region; and
WHEREAS, this region was adversely affected by the 2013 closure of Baton Rouge's
mental health emergency room extension, referred to hereafter as the MHERE, which had
operated as part of the Earl K. Long Medical Center and kept patients with mental illness
from congesting hospital emergency departments and jails; and
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WHEREAS, the MHERE was a type of crisis receiving center in which a staff of
mental health and behavioral health specialists provided a high level of screening and
assessment to people experiencing mental health or behavioral health crises; and
WHEREAS, the MHERE functioned to connect patients experiencing mental health
or behavioral health crises to either acute or ongoing community-based treatment;
diminished the need in the city and region for recurrent crisis services for persons suffering
from mental illness, substance abuse, or both conditions; and served as a crisis continuum
component that assisted law enforcement officers, hospital emergency departments, and jails
by treating persons with mental health and behavioral health conditions in an appropriate
setting; and
WHEREAS, since the closure of the Baton Rouge MHERE, public officials,
community leaders, and public health advocates throughout the capital region have
increasingly expressed concerns over the inadequacy of resources available for treatment of
persons with mental health and behavioral health conditions, with these concerns relating
equally to the well-being of persons whose critical health needs are going unmet and to the
mounting financial burdens that hospitals and detention facilities have incurred through
confining these persons in such costly settings.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
urge and request the Capital Area Human Services District to conduct a study of systems for
providing appropriate mental health and behavioral health treatment in the capital region as
an alternative to hospitalization or detention in jails or other correctional facilities of persons
in mental health or behavioral health crisis.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the study and its resulting report shall address,
without limitation, the following:
(1) Whether creation and maintenance of a system for providing appropriate mental
health and behavioral health treatment in the capital region could be accomplished within
the limits of the existing financial resources and healthcare infrastructure of the region.
(2) The cost of creating and implementing a system for providing appropriate mental
health and behavioral health treatment in the capital region if such a system cannot be
created and maintained within the limits of the existing financial resources and healthcare
infrastructure of the region.
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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that in developing the study, the district may engage
and obtain information and commentary from public officials, community leaders, public
health advocates, and stakeholder groups at the discretion of the executive director of the
district.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the district shall submit a written report of
findings of the study required by this Resolution to the members of the Capital Region
Legislative Delegation, the House Committee on Health and Welfare, and the Senate
Committee on Health and Welfare no later than sixty days prior to the convening of the 2017
Regular Session of the Legislature of Louisiana.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
executive director of the Capital Area Human Services District.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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