Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health licenses and regulates health facilities, as defined. A violation of these provisions is a crime.
Existing law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, provides for the involuntary commitment and treatment of persons with specified mental disorders for the protection of the persons so committed. Under the act, when a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is a danger to others, or to himself or herself, or gravely disabled, he or she may, upon probable cause, be taken into custody by a peace officer, a member of the attending staff of an evaluation facility, designated members of a mobile crisis team, or another designated professional person, and placed in a facility designated by the county and approved by the State Department of Social Services as a facility for 72-hour treatment
and evaluation.
Beginning
On or before July 1, 2017, this bill would require the department to establish and administer a pilot program to create an Internet Web site-based electronic registry, known as the acute psychiatric bed registry, in specified counties, to collect, aggregate, and display specified
information regarding the availability of acute psychiatric beds in psychiatric health facilities
facilities, as defined, to facilitate the identification and designation of health facilities for the temporary detention and treatment of individuals who meet specified criteria for temporary detention. The bill would require a psychiatric health facility to, on or before July 1, 2017, designate an employee to submit to the registry notification that an acute psychiatric bed has become available at the psychiatric health facility and to serve as the contact person to respond to requests for information related to data reported to the registry, as provided. The bill would require the department to submit specified reports to the Legislature regarding the registry and to make these
reports available to the public and on its Internet Web site.
This bill would provide that a violation of its provisions is not a crime under existing law.
crime. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2022.