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History
- Reported and committed to rules
- Reported and committed to finance
- Referred to mental health and developmental disabilities
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the mental hygiene law and the education law, in relation to creating mental health incident review panels
Purpose of the bill
This bill would authorize the Commissioner of the Office of Mental Health (OMH) to convene panels of State and local officials to review violent incidents involving persons with mental illness.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 of the bill would add a new Mental Hygiene Law (MHL) § 31.37 to: (1) give the Commissioner of OMH the authority to establish one or more mental health incident review panels to evaluate the circumstances surrounding incidents in which a person with serious mental illness is physically injured or causes physical injury, suffers a serious and preventable medical complication, or becomes involved in a violent criminal incident; (2) require that such panels include State mental health and local government officials, and may include members from law enforcement agencies; (3) allow such panels access to certain individually-identifiable records; (4) provide for civil and criminal immunity for individuals who provide information to such panels; (5) require that each panel develop a report of the incident investigated; (6) require OMH to submit annual cumulative reports to the Governor and the Legislature a summary the findings and recommendations of mental health incident review panels.
Read the full memo (687 words)
Section 2 of the bill would add a new MHL . 33.13 (c)(15) to allow mental health information to be disclosed to a mental health review panel.
Section 3 of the bill would amend Education Law § 6527 to provide that the reviews conducted by the mental health incident review panels will not be subject to disclosure.
Section 4 of the bill would provide that it become effective 30 days after it becomes law.
Existing law
The New York Court of Appeals has recognized that the statutory privilege set forth in Education Law § 6527, which protects quality assurance records of certain entities from disclosure in the context of Civil Procedure Law and Rules discovery provisions, "promote s the quality of care through self-review without fear of legal reprisal." Katherine F. v. New York, 94 N.Y.2d 200, 205 (1999). Under MHL § 29.29, the Commissioner of OMH must establish procedures for review and analysis of accidents and other injuries affecting the health and welfare of patients at a mental health facility. Such reviews and analyses are subject to the confidentiality provisions of Education Law § 6527.
Legislative history
A similar bill was introduced as a Governor's Program Bill in 2008 (S.8710/A.11561-A) and passed the Senate only. In 2009, the Legislature introduced S.4902/A.6835, and these bills remained in committee.
Statement in support
This bill, which creates a statutory scheme modeled after the child fatality reviews conducted pursuant to Social Services Law § 422-h, allows for improved State and local response to incidents that occur outside of a mental health facility in which persons with mental illness are harmed or harm others, suffer serious and preventable medical complications, or become involved in violent criminal offenses.
First, the bill allows the OMH Commissioner to include local and State officials with varied backgrounds on review panels, which will permit more effective and widely ranging evaluations of these incidents. Impaneling members with mental health, social' services and law enforcement backgrounds will ensure that an incident review panel may consider a wide range of perspectives when: (1) identifying systemic and individual problems that may have contributed to a particular incident; and (2) recommending policy or legislative changes to prevent future occurrences and enhance public safety.
Second, the bill would ensure that incident reviews are conducted objectively, and that panel-members and other persons with whom the panel members consult may frankly and freely discuss and analyze any errors or shortcomings in the mental health and criminal justice systems that may have led to the incident's occurrence. These assurances of confidentiality will lead to both improved quality of care for persons with mental illness and enhanced protection for the public.
Budget implications
This bill would have no fiscal impact.
Effective date
This bill would take effect 30 days after enactment.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.