S-3738               _______________________________________________

                                                   SENATE BILL NO. 6203

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1988 Regular Session

By Senators Deccio, Niemi, Kreidler and Smith

Read first time 1/14/88 and referred to Committee on Health Care & Corrections.

AN ACT Relating to developmental disabilities; creating new sections; and providing an expiration date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.     The legislature finds that some three hundred to five hundred persons who are developmentally disabled have been detained in recent years in state and local psychiatric facilities where they received inadequate and inappropriate care.

          The legislature finds that this situation is at odds with the legislature's intention that developmentally disabled persons receive the most appropriate, least restrictive forms of care consistent with the principals of support for normal community living.

          The legislature recognizes that this situation has developed, in part, because of a lack of professional expertise and a lack of intradepartmental integration between various segments of the department of social and health services.

          For these reasons, the legislature has determined that the department should make special efforts to review the services provided to these individuals and to propose a pilot project to improve the service integration, efficiency, and overall quality of care these individuals receive.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.     (1) The department of social and health services shall:

          (a) Determine the number of eligible developmentally disabled persons who, since January 1985, have been hospitalized for any length of time in a state or local psychiatric facility;

          (b) Determine the number, type, and extent of services provided to these persons by federal, state, local, and private agencies and service organizations or groups;

          (c) Determine the state, federal, local government, and private funds expended to provide the services;

          (d) Determine the effectiveness of the services and service configurations at avoiding acute episodes of mental illness, reducing inpatient hospitalization or institutionalization, reducing patient movement from one residential placement to another, or reducing overall costs of patient care; and

          (e) Propose a pilot project to integrate the delivery of both existing and new services for eligible developmentally disabled persons who have been hospitalized in a state or local psychiatric facility.  The pilot project should emphasize normalized, community living, but may include provision for secure institutional placements, if adequate community placements cannot be developed.

          (2) A report containing the information required by this section and including a proposed pilot project budget and management plan shall be submitted by the department to the appropriate legislative committees by November 15, 1988.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.     This act shall expire on December 31, 1988.