SB6485 re-establishes the Children’s Mental Health Work Group through December 2020.
Additionally, the bill:
•Re-establishes the Children’s Mental Health Work Group through the year 2020
•Allows provider reimbursement for supervision and partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient treatment programs
•Directs the Health Care Authority and the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) to develop strategies for expanding home visiting.
•Requires the DCYF to provide infant nurse consultation for child care providers in two regions
•Establishes an additional residency in Child Psychiatry at the University of Washington
•Directs an advisory group to make recommendations regarding Parent-Initiated Treatment and Age of Consent
Requires the delivery of mental health instruction in two high school pilot sites.
*Companion to HB 2779
The substitute bill makes the following changes:
• Increases the number of co-chairs of the children’s mental health work group from two to three.
• Requires two co-chairs to be legislators representing the minority and majority caucuses in the House of Representatives.
• Requires the children’s mental health work group to monitor the implementation of programs and policies related to children’s mental health.
• Adds a pediatrician located in the east of the crest of the Cascade mountains as a member of the children’s mental health work group.
• Adds a child psychiatrist as a member of the children’s mental health work group.
• Changes responsibility for developing a common set of definitions, developing a statewide strategy, and maximizing federal resources for home visiting from the Health Care Authority to the Department of Children, Youth, and Families.
