TAMPA, Fla. – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed two bills on Wednesday morning that address mental health and substance abuse.
DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1620 and Senate Bill 168 during a news conference in Tampa.
“I think that this is the product of people really looking and trying to see what goes on in this space, and not only just in Florida, but looking around the country to see what’s worked or not worked, and then offering recommendations about how we can do a better job,” DeSantis said.
Press play above to watch DeSantis’ remarks
SB 1620 - Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
This bill implements key recommendations made by Florida’s Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorder.
The bill makes the following specific changes to Florida’s Mental Health Act:
- Defines person-first language to mean language used in a professional medical setting must emphasize the patient as a person rather than his or her disability or illness and requires use and promotion of person-first language as the standard in professional behavioral health settings.
- Requires the continued promotion of best practices in crisis intervention and trauma-informed care.
- Requires that individualized treatment plans be updated every 30 days that the patient is in a receiving or treatment facility, with those patients in a facility longer than 24 months having plans updated every 60 days.
- Requires the use and statewide integration of the Daily Living Activities-20 (DLA-20) functional assessment tool.
- Requires the Department of Children and Families (DCF), in consultation with the Department of Education (DOE), to conduct a biennial review of school-based behavioral health services and behavioral health telehealth access.
- Requires the DCF to conduct biennial reviews and the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) to prioritize licensing for short-term residential treatment facilities in underserved counties and high-need areas.
“I think this helps build a system to try to prevent the worst crises from occurring in the first place. And a lot of times, when you have really serious crises, there’s a buildup to that, that if you did have some support earlier on, probably could have been avoided,” DeSantis said.
SB 168 - “Tristin Murphy Act”
This bill is named after Tristin Murphy, who tragically took his own life in a Florida prison in 2021.
“He had schizophrenia, paranoia and delusions, but he was not provided the mental health care that he was really in dire need of when he got involved with the criminal justice system," DeSantis said.
The legislation aims to add alternative pathways to prosecuting defendants with mental illnesses.
This bill:
- Establishes probation conditions for defendants with mental illness
- Sets requirements for work assignments and programs
- Expands training options under the criminal justice, mental health and substance abuse reinvestment grant program
- Creates model proecesses for diverting defendants to mental health treatment
“This bill requires mental health evaluations for individuals with a history of incompetency adjudications before they’re placed on probation and return to society, which have functioned as a loophole,” DeSantis said.
These bills go into effect on July 1.