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AB-864 Substance use disorder: telephone system.(2023-2024)

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Date Published: 03/09/2023 09:00 PM
AB864:v98#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  March 09, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 864

Introduced by Assembly Member Haney

February 14, 2023

An act relating to telecommunications. to add Section 11856.7 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to substance use disorder.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 864, as amended, Haney. Drug overdose and substance use hotline. Substance use disorder: telephone system.
Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to license and regulate alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facilities serving adults. Existing law authorizes the department to certify qualified alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment programs, as prescribed. Under existing law, the department regulates the quality of these programs, taking into consideration the significance of community-based programs to alcohol and other drug abuse recovery and the need to encourage opportunities for low-income and special needs populations to receive alcohol and other drug abuse recovery or treatment services.
This bill would require the department to establish and maintain a 3-digit, statewide, nonemergency telephone system for substance use disorder treatment referrals.

Existing federal law, the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act, designates the 3-digit telephone number “988” as the universal number within the United States for the purpose of the national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline system. Existing law, the Miles Hall Lifeline and Suicide Prevention Act, requires the Office of Emergency Services to appoint a 988 system director and, among other things, verify interoperability between and across 911 and 988. Existing law also requires the California Health and Human Services Agency to create, no later than December 31, 2023, a set of recommendations to support a 5-year implementation plan for a comprehensive 988 system.

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to create a 3-digit, statewide telephone number to connect directly to a state-managed crisis center that gives public health information on the prevention of drug overdoses, advice for family members and people experiencing drug addiction, and referrals to substance use disorder treatment.

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NOYES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 11856.7 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

11856.7.
 The department shall establish and maintain a three-digit, statewide, nonemergency telephone system for substance use disorder treatment referrals.

SECTION 1.

It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to create a three-digit, statewide telephone number to connect directly to a state-managed crisis center that gives public health information on the prevention of drug overdoses, advice for family members and people experiencing drug addiction, and referrals to substance use disorder treatment.