By: Uresti S.B. No. 1054
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the Hill Country local mental health authority crisis
stabilization unit.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. The heading to Section 551.009, Health and
Safety Code, is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 551.009. HILL COUNTRY LOCAL MENTAL HEALTH AUTHORITY
CRISIS STABILIZATION UNIT [PILOT PROJECT].
SECTION 2. Subsections (a), (b), (c), (e), and (f), Section
551.009, Health and Safety Code, are amended to read as follows:
(a) The Department of State Health Services shall contract
with the local mental health authority serving the Hill Country
area, including Kerr County, to operate [implement a crisis
stabilization unit pilot project by establishing and operating] a
crisis stabilization unit on the grounds of the Kerrville State
Hospital as provided by this section. The unit must be a 16-bed
facility separate from the buildings used by the Kerrville State
Hospital.
(b) The department shall include provisions in the contract
requiring [with] the local mental health authority [serving the
Hill Country area, including Kerr County,] to [operate the crisis
stabilization unit. The department shall] ensure that the crisis
stabilization unit provides short-term residential treatment,
including medical and nursing services, designed to reduce a
patient's acute symptoms of mental illness and prevent a patient's
admission to an inpatient mental health facility.
(c) The local mental health authority shall contract with
Kerrville State Hospital to provide food service, laundry service,
and lawn care[, and equipment rental to the crisis stabilization
unit. The local mental health authority may contract with
Kerrville State Hospital to provide pharmaceutical services for the
crisis stabilization unit].
(e) The local mental health authority operating the crisis
stabilization unit under contract shall use, for the purpose of
operating the 16-bed unit, the money appropriated to the department
for operating 16 beds in state hospitals that is allocated to the
local mental health authority. The department shall ensure that
the local mental health authority retains the remainder of the
local authority's state hospital allocation that is not used for
operating the 16-bed unit. The department may allocate additional
funds appropriated to the department for state hospitals to the
crisis stabilization unit [pilot project].
(f) The department shall reduce the number of beds the
department operates in the state hospital system by 16. The
department, in collaboration with the local mental health
authority, shall ensure that the 16 beds in the crisis
stabilization unit are made available to other mental health
authorities for use as designated by the department.
SECTION 3. Subsections (g) and (h), Section 551.009, Health
and Safety Code, are repealed.
SECTION 4. This Act does not make an appropriation. A
provision in this Act that creates a new governmental program,
creates a new entitlement, or imposes a new duty on a governmental
entity is not mandatory during a fiscal period for which the
legislature has not made a specific appropriation to implement the
provision.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect August 31, 2009.