Bill Text: NY S09787 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Provides for definitions of mental health and family and youth peer advocates and requires the office of mental health to establish peer service qualification programs.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-06-04 - SUBSTITUTED BY A7395 [S09787 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S09787-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          9787

                    IN SENATE

                                      May 30, 2024
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by Sen. BROUK -- (at request of the Office of Mental Health)
          -- 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  providing  defi-
          nitions  of  mental  health and family and youth peer and requires the
          office of  mental  health  to  establish  peer  service  qualification
          programs

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

     1    Section 1. Section 7.03 of the mental hygiene law is amended by adding
     2  six new subdivisions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 to read as follows:
     3    3. "Mental health peer" or "MHP" means an individual with lived-exper-
     4  ience who is actively in recovery from a mental health condition and has
     5  self-disclosed their mental health journey.
     6    4. "Family peer advocate" or "FPA" means an individual with  lived-ex-
     7  perience  as the biological, foster, or adoptive parent or primary care-
     8  giver of a child or youth with a social, emotional,  behavioral,  mental
     9  health, or developmental disability.
    10    5. "Youth peer advocate" or "YPA" means an individual who self-identi-
    11  fies  as  a  person with first-hand experience with mental health and/or
    12  co-occurring behavioral challenges as a young  person  or  has  received
    13  services in any one of the child-serving systems or programs pursuant to
    14  this chapter.
    15    6.  "New  York  state  certified  peer  specialist" or "NYCPS" means a
    16  mental health peer who has specialized training and holds  a  credential
    17  from a certifying authority recognized by the commissioner.
    18    7.  "Credentialed  family peer advocate" or "CFPA" means an individual
    19  verified to have met the criteria for a family peer advocate as  defined
    20  in  subdivision  four  of this section and who holds a credential from a
    21  certifying authority recognized by the commissioner.
    22    8. "Credentialed youth peer advocate" or "CYPA"  means  an  individual
    23  verified  to  have met the criteria for a youth peer advocate as defined
    24  in subdivision five of this section and who holds a  credential  from  a
    25  certifying authority recognized by the commissioner.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD07364-01-3
        S. 9787                             2

     1    §  2.  Subdivision  (d)  of section 7.07 of the mental hygiene law, as
     2  added by chapter 978 of the laws of 1977, is amended to read as follows:
     3    (d) The office of mental health shall foster programs for the training
     4  and  development of persons capable of providing the foregoing services,
     5  and for the qualification of persons capable of providing peer  services
     6  as  defined  in subdivisions three, four, five, six, seven, and eight of
     7  section 7.03 of this article and in accordance with criteria established
     8  by the commissioner.
     9    § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
    10  it shall have become a law.