Amend SB 7 in ARTICLE 6 of the bill by adding the following appropriately numbered SECTION and renumbering subsequent SECTIONS of the ARTICLE accordingly:
SECTION 6.____. (a) Section 534.053, Health and Safety Code, is amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
(a) The department shall ensure that, at a minimum, the following services are available in each service area:
(1) 24-hour emergency screening and rapid crisis stabilization services;
(2) community-based crisis residential services or hospitalization;
(3) community-based assessments, including the development of interdisciplinary treatment plans and diagnosis and evaluation services;
(4) family support services, including respite care;
(5) case management services;
(6) medication-related services, including medication clinics, laboratory monitoring, medication education, mental health maintenance education, and the provision of medication; [and]
(7) psychosocial rehabilitation programs, including social support activities, independent living skills, and vocational training; and
(8) community-based alternatives to inpatient hospitalization.
(d) Notwithstanding any other law, the department shall ensure the availability of appropriate and timely services designed to meet acute mental health placement needs of patients in order to reduce a patient's acute symptoms of mental illness and to prevent a patient's admission to an inpatient mental health facility, as defined by Section 571.003. The available services must include at least one of the following:
(1) crisis stabilization services;
(2) short-term residential treatment, respite care, or extended observation services; and
(3) medical and nursing services to address the patient's mental health condition or presenting symptoms.
(b) Subchapter B, Chapter 534, Health and Safety Code, is amended by adding Section 534.0531 to read as follows:
Sec. 534.0531. FUNDING FOR COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES. The department shall provide funding for the cost of ensuring the availability in each service area of community-based alternatives to inpatient hospitalization to the extent those costs are not paid from the delivery system reform incentive payments received under the Texas Health Care Transformation and Quality Improvement Program 1115 waiver.
(c) Section 534.054, Health and Safety Code, is amended by adding Subsection (b) to read as follows:
(b) The department shall contract with a local mental health authority to provide programs designed to make community-based alternatives accessible and available in order to avert or mitigate the need for inpatient hospitalization.
(d) If before implementing any provision of this section a state agency determines that a waiver or authorization from a federal agency is necessary for implementation of that provision, the agency affected by the provision shall request the waiver or authorization and may delay implementing that provision until the waiver or authorization is granted.