AB 741: Mental health: community care facilities.

(1)Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensing and regulation of community care facilities, as defined, by the State Department of Social Services. Existing law includes within the definition of community care facility a short-term residential treatment center, which is a residential facility licensed by the department and operated by any public agency or private organization that provides short-term, specialized, and intensive treatment, and 24-hour care and supervision to children. A violation of the act is a misdemeanor.

This bill would authorize a short-term residential treatment center to be operated as a childrens crisis residential center, as defined, and would require the department to regulate those programs, as specified. The bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services, in consultation with the County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California and representatives of provider associations, to establish interim Medi-Cal rates for childrens crisis residential services, as prescribed. By expanding the types of facilities that are regulated as a community care facility, this bill would expand the scope of an existing crime, thus creating a state-mandated local program.

(2)Existing law establishes the Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) program, under which counties provide payments to foster care providers on behalf of qualified children in foster care. In order to be eligible for AFDC-FC, existing law requires a child or nonminor dependent to be placed in a specified placement, including, commencing January 1, 2017, a short-term residential treatment center.

Existing law, effective January 1, 2017, authorizes a short-term residential treatment center to have a program that is certified by the State Department of Health Care Services or by a county mental health plan to which the department has delegated certification authority, or a program that is not certified, or both, and requires a short-term residential treatment center to accept for placement children who meet certain criteria, subject to specified requirements.

This bill would authorize a short-term residential treatment center that is operating as a childrens crisis residential center to, subject to specified requirements, accept for admission or placement any child, referred by a parent or guardian, or by the representative of a public or private entity that has the right to make these decisions on behalf of a child who is experiencing a mental health crisis and, absent admission to a childrens crisis residential center, would otherwise require acceptance by the emergency department of a general hospital, or admission into a psychiatric hospital or the psychiatric inpatient unit of a general hospital.

(3)Existing law establishes the Investment in Mental Health Wellness Act of 2013. Existing law provides that funds appropriated by the Legislature to the California Health Facilities Financing Authority for the purposes of the act be made available to selected counties or counties acting jointly, except as otherwise provided, and used to provide, among other things, a complete continuum of crisis services for children and youth 21 years of age and under regardless of where they live in the state. The act requires grant awards made by the authority to be used to expand local resources for the development, capital, equipment acquisition, and applicable program startup or expansion costs to increase capacity for client assistance and crisis services for children and youth 21 years of age and under in specified areas, including crisis residential treatment as authorized by specified provisions.

This bill would include within these specified areas crisis residential treatment provided at a childrens crisis residential center.

(4)This bill would also make nonsubstantive, conforming changes.

(5)This bill would incorporate additional changes made by SB 524 and AB 1997 that would become operative only if this bill is chaptered last.

(6)The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.