What's happening
This bill establishes peer crisis diversion homes in New York, offering supportive, peer-run short-term housing and services for adults with urgent behavioral health needs as an alternative to hospitalization.
Why it matters
Empowers people with lived experience. By requiring that peer crisis diversion homes be governed and staffed by individuals who have personally experienced behavioral health crises, the bill centers the perspective of those most familiar with the system’s gaps and potential, increasing empathy and credibility in service delivery.
Reduces unnecessary hospitalizations. The homes are designed specifically for adults experiencing urgent behavioral health needs who do not require hospitalization, providing a supportive alternative that can prevent the trauma and disruption of involuntary hospital stays.
Promotes individualized recovery and community integration. Services emphasize personal choice, relationship-building, and daily living skills, aiming to help residents stabilize, regain confidence, and transition smoothly back into independent or community living, rather than institutional care.
Mandates collaboration and accountability. The bill requires ongoing consultation with people who use behavioral health services, their families, providers, and advocates, as well as participation in community planning, to ensure the homes meet local needs, improve outcomes, and remain integrated within the broader continuum of care.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Create Peer Crisis Homes
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to mental health and developmental disabilities
- Referred to mental health and developmental disabilities
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Create Peer Crisis Homes
In Assembly Committee · Mental Health · Sponsor Diana Richardson
Full text
3 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
4381
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 11, 2019
Introduced by Sen. PARKER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities
AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to establishing peer crisis diversion homes
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The mental hygiene law is amended by adding a new section 31.34 to read as follows: § 31.34 Peer crisis diversion homes.
(a) For the purposes of this section:
(1) "commissioner" shall mean the commissioner of mental health;
(2) "crisis diversion services" shall mean services designed to provide a person who has behavioral health disorders and who is experiencing symptoms, a safe, supportive and affirming home-like, temporary residence where the person may begin the recovery process, understand the meaning of what the person is experiencing and regain equilibrium and the ability to relate effectively to other people. Crisis diversion services include peer support with an emphasis on relationship-building and personal choice;
(3) "peer support specialist" shall mean a person who has previously experienced urgent behavioral health needs and has recovered and who has successfully completed training that has been approved by the commissioner, qualifying that person to work with a resident;
(4) "resident" shall mean an adult who has experienced urgent behavioral health needs but does not require hospitalization and who voluntarily resides for a short term stay in a peer crisis diversion home;
(5) "peer crisis diversion home" shall mean a home-like environment that offers crisis diversion services by temporarily housing voluntary residents who engage in routine activities of daily living and learn about tools for recovery through experience and peer support. The
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04451-01-9
S. 4381 2
governing body of such home shall consist of current or former recipients of mental health services and shall control the decision making processes of the organization, including control of all budget and personnel management related to the peer crisis diversion home.
(b) The commissioner shall provide formal guidelines for training and credentialing of a peer support specialist, provided that each peer support specialist shall personally have experienced urgent behavioral health needs and shall be certified as completing training in de-escalation techniques, cultural competency, race relations, the recovery process, substance abuse, and avoidance of aggressive confrontation prior to working at a peer crisis diversion home.
(c) The commissioner shall, within one year of the effective date of this section, establish or contract for the establishment of no less than six peer crisis diversion homes, three of which shall be in urban settings and three of which shall be in rural communities. Such homes shall be recipient-run homes and may be associated with comprehensive psychiatric emergency programs established pursuant to section 31.27 of this article.
(d) A peer crisis diversion home, as authorized by this section, shall offer crisis diversion services that:
(1) serve residents regardless of income;
(2) are staffed twenty-four hours a day by two or more peer support specialists;
(3) employ a licensed clinician full time and a psychiatric consultant at least part time;
(4) include peer support in helping residents perform daily public living skills and reentry into independent living;
(5) offer a mix of therapeutic services, including nontraditional tools for wellness and traditional behavioral health services;
(6) accept a resident on a first-come, first-served basis for a temporary stay provided they have alternate long term housing options available;
(7) use interpersonal relationship and connection to the community as primary modalities of care;
(8) base length of stay on the psychological state of residents, provided that such stay shall be short term with the understanding they are able and willing to live in more independent settings and to resume their desired roles in the community; and
(9) are a part of a system of care continuum in the community and state aimed at diverting individuals experiencing behavioral health crisis from more intensive hospital based care and treatment by providing peer support services in a home-like setting for short term, temporary stays.
(e) As early as possible, a peer support specialist shall assist a resident of a peer crisis home with accessing a service provider who may coordinate care and otherwise provide support for such resident upon the completion of such resident's stay at a peer crisis diversion home.
(f) Peer crisis diversion homes shall consult with community stakeholders, including those who use the behavioral health system and their family members, providers of behavioral health services, whether traditional or alternative, advocates, and others with subject matter expertise, as part of the planning and development of peer crisis diversion homes.
(g) Peer crisis diversion homes shall participate in county and community planning activities annually, and as needed, in order to participate in local community service planning processes to ensure, maintain,
S. 4381 3
improve or develop community services that demonstrate recovery outcomes. These outcomes include, but are not limited to, quality of life, socio-economic status, entitlement status, social networking, coping skills and reduction in use of crisis services.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to establishing peer crisis diversion homes
Purpose
To create peer crisis diversion homes which would provide short term peer support to individuals in psychiatric crisis who can be served outside of a hospital with the goal of helping them stabilize and re-en- ter into independent living.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 of the bill adds a new section 31.34 of the mental hygiene law directing the Commission of OMH to establish no less than 6 Peer Crisis diversion homes within one year of enactment, of which 3 shall be in rural areas and 3 in urban areas. The homes are designed to provide short term peer support to individuals in crisis who can be served outside of a hospital with the goal of helping them stabilize and re-en- ter into independent living. The services would be voluntary and provided by peer support specialists who have previously experienced urgent behavioral health needs and recovered and who have completed training approved by the Commissioner. Similarly, the governing body of such homes would consist of individuals who have previously experienced urgent behavioral health needs and recovered.
Read the full memo (670 words)
Section 2 of the bill provides for an immediate effective date.
Existing law
Since the late 1980's NYS has had the Comprehensive psychiatric emergen- cy programs CPEP (Section 31.27 of the mental hygiene law) which were designed to manage psychiatric crisis and envisioned to include crisis residence services.
Justification
Our nation's psychiatric emergency system is in crisis Community mental health resources across the nation have become progressively more scarce in the Past several decades and people with psychiatric disabilities have increasingly turned towards emergency rooms (ERs) at a great cost to society both fiscally and socially.
Emergency rooms are stretched to the breaking point. There is limited physical space and limited staff and this has resulted in a dramatic increase in wait time in the ERs. A 2008 study in Health Affairs, The Policy Journal of The Health Sphere showed a 4.1% increase per year in ER wait time between 1997 and 2004, with ethnic minorities, women and patients in urban ERs waiting longer than other patients.
The tragic death of Ms. Esmin Green in 2008 at the Kings County Emergen- cy Room in Brooklyn New York is an example of the consequences of such overcrowding. Hospital officials then reorganized parts of the emergency department to speed up patient flow, to incorporate ExpressCare clinics to provide faster urgent care.
To support the community integration of people with psychiatric disabil- ities and solve the problems defined above, experts have consistently called for innovative cost effective community based alternatives to the crisis in our psychiatric emergency response system. Through the use of peer crisis diversion homes, New York State can become a national leader in the delivery of innovative crisis services for people with psychiat- ric emergencies. These peer-operated homes will be designed to assist people with psychiatric disabilities in diverting from psychiatric distress which would otherwise have lead to a hospitalization. Equipped with a variety of traditional self-help and proactive tools to maintain wellness, clinical staff and trained peer companions will assist resi- dents in learning self-help tools with the underlying goal of avoiding future emergency room and inpatient hospitalizations.
For several years a not-for profit has run a hospital division program called Rose House for residents of Orange and Ulster Counties which is similar to the peer crisis diversion homes envisioned in this bill. This bill expands upon the Rose House model thus filling a gap in the mental health system and helping individuals break the cycle of often chronic unnecessary, ineffective and expensive hospitalizations.
Legislative history
2017-18:S3256-REFERRED TO MENTAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES 2015-16: S.1894 - Referred to Mental Health and Developmental Disabili- ties 2013-14: S.890 - Died in Mental Health 2011-12: S.3017 - Died in Mental Health 2009-2010 S.5012/A.8165 - Referred to Finance
Fiscal implications
Minimal with savings as expensive ER visits are averted.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.