Bill Text: NY S08508 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Relates to involuntary in-patient mental health treatment where care and treatment in a hospital is essential to a person's welfare if, in the absence of such care and treatment, the person's mental illness is likely to result in serious harm.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-03-16 - PRINT NUMBER 8508A [S08508 Detail]

Download: New_York-2021-S08508-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          8508

                    IN SENATE

                                      March 8, 2022
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  SAVINO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Mental Health

        AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to in-patient mental
          health treatment

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.    Short  Title.  This act shall be known as the "New York
     2  State Mental Health Reform Act".
     3    § 2. Legislative findings. With the intent of  restoring  dignity  and
     4  transparency to our state's treatment and care of mentally ill patients,
     5  the  state  engaged in reforming procedures and policies in implementing
     6  preferred outpatient treatment through a structured outpatient treatment
     7  process commonly referred to as Kendra's Law.  The  law  was  to  ensure
     8  those  individuals  requiring  mental  health  treatment were afforded a
     9  dignified process in treatment while allowing the patient's  liberty  to
    10  be  free to pursue their daily lives without stigma or negative connota-
    11  tions attached to mental health.
    12    Unfortunately, the practical application of the state's mental hygiene
    13  laws has allowed thousands of people who require  more stringent  mental
    14  health  protocols  for  treatment to go without appropriate oversight to
    15  ensure their treatment is pursued thus, resulting in  severe  behavioral
    16  transgression to include a large degree of homelessness, criminal behav-
    17  ior,  toxic  drug use and alcoholism. The severity of abhorrent outcomes
    18  as the result of a failure to give medical  professionals,  as  well  as
    19  judicial direction in determining certain behavioral dysfunction(s) that
    20  display  a  need  for  in-patient  care, has severely impacted patient's
    21  health, welfare, and their ability to regularly function in society. All
    22  too often, we are seeing unsuspecting citizens killed or maimed  as  the
    23  result  of  violent  behavior by patients who have either disregarded or
    24  rejected available or mandated mental health services due to their dete-
    25  riorating mental state, which compounds the deleterious outcome for  the
    26  patient  as  well  as  society.    Although outpatient commitment is the
    27  preferred mode of treatment for patients seeking mental health services,
    28  the occasion arises  where  judicial  intervention  to  seek  immediate,

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD14879-01-2
        S. 8508                             2

     1  mandated  treatment through court ordered in-patient treatment, in order
     2  to facilitate an expedited pathway for seeking  medical  or  psychiatric
     3  help  is necessary to prevent on-going negative behavioral episodes that
     4  places the patient or the public at risk of physical injury or death.
     5    §  3.  The second, third and fourth undesignated paragraphs of section
     6  9.01 of the mental hygiene law, as amended by chapter 723 of the laws of
     7  1989, are amended to read as follows:
     8    "in need of involuntary care and treatment" means that a person has  a
     9  mental  illness  for which care and treatment as a patient in a hospital
    10  is essential to such person's welfare and [whose] which so  impairs  the
    11  person's  judgment [is so impaired that he] that the person is unable to
    12  understand the need for such care and treatment. Care and treatment in a
    13  hospital shall be considered essential to a person's welfare if, in  the
    14  absence of such care and treatment, the person's mental illness is like-
    15  ly to result in serious harm.
    16    ["likelihood to result in serious harm" or] "likely to result in seri-
    17  ous  harm"  means  presenting  a substantial risk of: (a) [a substantial
    18  risk of] physical harm to the person as  manifested  by  threats  of  or
    19  attempts  at  suicide or serious bodily harm or substantial interference
    20  with the person's ability to meet the person's needs for food, clothing,
    21  shelter or medical care, or other conduct demonstrating that the  person
    22  is  dangerous to himself or herself, or (b) [a substantial risk of phys-
    23  ical harm to other persons as manifested by] homicidal or other  violent
    24  behavior  by which others are placed in reasonable fear of serious phys-
    25  ical harm.
    26    "need for retention" means [that] the need of a person  who  has  been
    27  admitted  to  a  hospital  pursuant  to  this article [is in need] for a
    28  further period of involuntary care and treatment in a  hospital  [for  a
    29  further  period]. Evaluation of need for retention shall include consid-
    30  eration of the person's preparedness,  with  appropriate  and  available
    31  support, to adhere to essential outpatient treatment.
    32    §  4.  This  act  shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
    33  have become a law.