Legislative Issues: Community Mental Health Infrastructure
The Community-Based Mental Health Infrastructure Improvement Act
(S. 2183 and HR. 4899)
On October 17, 2007, Senator Gordon H. Smith (R-OR) introduced in the U.S. Senate, legislation to improve access to community-based mental health care facilities. On December 19, 2007, Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Mary Bono (R-CA) introduced the Community-Based Mental Health Infrastructure Improvement Act (HR. 4899) in the House.
The Community-Based Mental Health Infrastructure Improvement Act provides federal funding to create and expand facilities that offer local access to mental health treatment.
The Community-Based Mental Health Infrastructure Improvement Act provides federal funding to create and expand facilities that offer local access to mental health treatment.
The new grant program will explicitly support construction, expansion, and modernization of facilities used to provide mental health and addiction treatment services.
The Community-Based Mental Health Infrastructure Improvement Act would provide funding for bricks and mortar infrastructure for mental health programs in local communities. There is no federal funding currently available for construction of community mental health facilities. The bill was created to ensure that individuals with mental illness are not turned away because a facility does not have the resources to keep their building up to code or because building expansion could not occur to keep up with a growing population due to ineligibility for funding.
