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Senate advances mental-health restructuring bill after witnesses describe bed shortage
Summary
Senate sponsors introduced SB 82 to allocate state-hospital beds to local mental-health authorities, add appropriations and clarify admission authority. Mental-health providers and the Division of Mental Health testified in support; corrections officials stressed continuing forensic-bed needs and funding sources.
Senator John Holmgren presented Senate Bill 82 as a comprehensive reworking of how Utah allocates and manages care for adults with severe mental illness, directing the Board of Mental Health to adopt a formula that assigns state-hospital beds to local mental-health authorities and clarifying local control of admissions and discharges for those allocated beds.
Holmgren told the Senate he intends the bill to define "who is responsible for what part of the care in the mental-health system," and that the legislation aims to prevent gaps and unclear responsibility between the state hospital and local authorities. The bill incorporates recommendations from a Children-at-Risk task force and…
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