Assembly Bill A812

2023-2024 Legislative Session

Relates to clarifying the standards for involuntary in-patient care and treatment

download bill text pdf

Sponsored By

Current Bill Status - In Assembly Committee


  • Introduced
    • In Committee Assembly
    • In Committee Senate
    • On Floor Calendar Assembly
    • On Floor Calendar Senate
    • Passed Assembly
    • Passed Senate
  • Delivered to Governor
  • Signed By Governor

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2023-A812 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Senate Version of this Bill:
S5508
Current Committee:
Assembly Mental Health
Law Section:
Mental Hygiene Law
Laws Affected:
Amd §§9.01 & 9.39, Ment Hyg L
Versions Introduced in 2021-2022 Legislative Session:
A9669, S8508

2023-A812 (ACTIVE) - Summary

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.

2023-A812 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                    812
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                             January 11, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  BRAUNSTEIN  -- read once and referred to the
   Committee on Mental Health
 
 AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation  to  clarifying  the
   standards for involuntary in-patient care and treatment
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1.  Short title. This act shall be  known  as  the  "New  York
 State Mental Health Reform Act".
   §  2.  Legislative  findings. With the intent of restoring dignity and
 transparency to our state's treatment and care of mentally ill patients,
 the state engaged in reforming procedures and policies  in  implementing
 preferred outpatient treatment through a structured outpatient treatment
 process  commonly  referred  to  as  Kendra's Law. The law was to ensure
 those individuals requiring mental  health  treatment  were  afforded  a
 dignified  process  in treatment while allowing the patient's liberty to
 be free to pursue their daily lives without stigma or negative  connota-
 tions attached to mental health.
   Unfortunately, the practical application of the state's mental hygiene
 laws  has allowed thousands of people who require  more stringent mental
 health protocols for treatment to go without  appropriate  oversight  to
 ensure  their  treatment is pursued thus, resulting in severe behavioral
 transgression to include a large degree of homelessness, criminal behav-
 ior, toxic drug use and alcoholism. The severity of  abhorrent  outcomes
 as  the  result  of  a failure to give medical professionals, as well as
 judicial direction in determining certain behavioral dysfunction(s) that
 display a need for in-patient  care,  has  severely  impacted  patient's
 health, welfare, and their ability to regularly function in society. All
 too  often,  we are seeing unsuspecting citizens killed or maimed as the
 result of violent behavior by patients who have  either  disregarded  or
 rejected available or mandated mental health services due to their dete-
 riorating  mental state, which compounds the deleterious outcome for the
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD01614-01-3
              

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