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- Referred to mental health and developmental disabilities
- Reported and committed to finance
- Referred to mental health and developmental disabilities
Full text
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Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S196
Title of bill
An act to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to safety provisions for employees of the office of mental health
Purpose
The purpose of this legislation is to provide for the safety of mental health workers who may be at risk of violent behaviors from patients that they tend to.
Summary of provisions
Two new subdivisions (c) and (d) are added to § 7.25 of the mental hygiene law. Subdivision (c) directs the commissioner of the Office of Mental Health (OMH) to require that no OMH employee shall enter the residence of a person with a serious mental illness unless accompanied by at least one other OMH employee. Subdivision (c) also directs the Commissioner to provide all OMH intensive case managers, when required to enter the residence of a person with a serious mental illness, with a wireless telephone or comparable device for the purposes of emergency communications. Subdivision (d) directs the commissioner of OMH to provide for the annual training of OMH employees in safety and violence Prevention. OMH is further directed to allocate or redistribute resources to ensure a ratio of no less than one intensive case manager for each ten persons receiving intensive case management services.
Justification
There have been many violent incidents across New York State involving persons with serious mental illness and the OMH caseworkers charged with caring for them. Some of these incidents could well have been avoided or at least made less severe if these employees had been in the company of at least one other intensive case manager trained in safety and violence prevention. This legislation would ensure that OMH employees are better prepared to face situations in which violent behavior threatening their safety and the safety of others may arise.
Bill history
S.5524C of 2000; Referred to Senate Committee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities S.3359/A.5575 of 2002 Passed Assembly S.1516/A.678 of 2003/2004; Referred to Senate Committee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities S.207 of 2005/2006; vetoed memo 247 S.3101 2007/2008; Delivered to Assembly, referred to ways and means S.3216/A.7878 of 2009/2010; Referred to Senate Committee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Effective date
60 days after being enacted.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.