Mental health and substance abuse bill clears first Senate panel stop
Both the Senate and House bills have leadership support and come with a big price tag
Sen. Erin Grall
It took about six minutes on January 30 for a measure overhauling the state’s mental health and substance abuse laws to pass its first committee stop in the Florida Senate.
The Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee had no questions on the bill, SB 1784, where it was the first item on the agenda and where it passed unanimously with little fanfare.
The bill streamlines the Baker and Marchman acts that govern Florida’s mental health and substance abuse laws, respectively, to increase access to involuntary examinations and treatment.
Bill sponsor Sen. Erin Grall, a Vero Beach Republican and an attorney, highlighted several areas of the legislation in her opening remarks that make changes to one or both laws:
- It allows law enforcement officers discretion in whether to initiate an involuntary exam under the Baker Act whereas they are currently required to do so.
- It increases crisis care by removing the 30-bed crisis stabilization cap.
- It streamlines processes for court-ordered involuntary mental health treatment services.
- It allows minors to receive involuntary outpatient mental health treatment.
- It gives courts more flexibility in ordering involuntary mental health services and requires these orders and resulting treatment plans to be included in a patient’s clinical record.
- It removes “bureaucratic obstacles” for longer-term court-ordered substance abuse treatment.
- It creates more comprehensive and personalized discharge treatment plans under both laws.
- It allows remote witness testimony in hearings related to both laws.
- It makes it easier for those found incompetent in criminal proceedings to receive treatment.
There was no public comment, and the only debate during the hearing was by Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, a Plantation Democrat.
“I just wanted to thank Senator Grall for taking on this Herculean task of fixing the Marchman Act and the Baker Act,” said Book before voting in favor of the measure. “I think removing the cap on beds in stabilization units is really important. Anything that we can do to make the Marchman Act easier and more usable for families is important.”
Grall said in her closing remarks that most of the work on the legislation had been generated by the Florida House Children, Families and Seniors Subcommittee Chair Traci Koster, a Tampa Republican and attorney, and Vice Chair Patt Maney, a retired Republican judge from Shalimar.
Rep. Traci Koster
Koster’s subcommittee created the similar companion measure, HB 7021, which has passed two of its three panels in that chamber and is sponsored by Maney.
“I can take little credit in this space except to know that there are a lot of challenges in the Baker Act and Marchman Act — procedures and proceedings that make it frustrating for families and law enforcement and our court system,” Grall said in her closing remarks.
She added: “With the support of the speaker and the president and, understanding that this is something that we should really dedicate resources to fixing, it’s just a privilege to be able to help move us in the right direction.”
To Grall’s point, lawmakers anticipate the bills will increase court-ordered treatment services, add reporting requirements by the state Department of Children and Families (DCF), and create more work for treatment facilities to personalize discharge plans.
The Senate has yet to determine how much the legislation will cost, but says in the first staff analysis there will be an “indeterminate significant fiscal impact to DCF and the state court system.”
The lower chamber appears to have more clarity. The House Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee on January 24 allocated $50 million in recurring funds to help DCF implement the legislation.
