Resolve, Directing the Department of Health and Human Services To Develop a Model for Community-based Therapeutic Living Settings for Adults with Mental Illness

Sec. 1. Department of Health and Human Services to develop model. Resolved: That the Department of Health and Human Services shall develop a model for a system of community-based therapeutic living settings for adults with mental illness. This model must grant priority for services within the model to adults with mental illness who have been hospitalized at the Augusta Mental Health Institute or the Riverview Psychiatric Center or who have resided in community-based group homes for persons with mental illness. The department shall include an examination of the financial implications of the model as part of its development of the model. The department shall develop the model using existing departmental resources. In developing the model the department, with the assistance of the Office of Fiscal and Program Review, shall develop a per-unit cost comparison for residential placements for persons with mental illness that compares hospitalization settings, community-based group home settings, other community-based residential settings and community-based therapeutic living settings. The department shall submit a report on the development of this model to the Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services no later than September 1, 2006.