An Act To Reduce the Cost of Mental Health Services in Maine
Maine Legislature, Session 125, LD 0918
Committee: Health and Human Services
Sponsors: HASKELL, GERZOFSKY, EVES, PETERSON, STRANG BURGESS, STUCKEY, WEBSTER, SAVIELLO
Amends: 34-B MRSA §3004, 34-B MRSA §3609

Legislative Document 
No. 918 
H.P. 678 
House of Representatives, March 8, 2011 
An Act To Reduce the Cost of Mental Health Services in Maine 
Reference to the Committee on Health and Human Services suggested and ordered printed. 
HEATHER J.R. PRIEST 
Clerk 
Presented by Representative HASKELL of Portland. 
Cosponsored by Senator GERZOFSKY of Cumberland and 
Representatives: EVES of North Berwick, PETERSON of Rumford, STRANG BURGESS of 
Cumberland, STUCKEY of Portland, WEBSTER of Freeport, Senator: SAVIELLO of 
Franklin. 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  34-B MRSA §3004, as amended by PL 2009, c. 147, §12, is further 
amended to read: 
§3004.  Community Support Systems 
1.  Definitions.  As used in this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the 
term "community support system" means the entire complex of mental health, 
rehabilitative, residential and other support services in the community to ensure 
community integration and the maintenance of a decent quality of life for persons with 
chronic mental illness following terms have the following meanings. 
A.  "Community support system" means the entire complex of mental health, 
rehabilitative, residential, peer and family support and other support and 
recovery-related services in the community to ensure community integration and the 
maintenance of a decent quality of life for adults and children with serious and 
persistent mental illness and their families. 
B.  "Immediate family member" means a parent, sibling, adult child, domestic partner 
or spouse of a person with mental illness. 
C.  "Peer and family support" means the emotional and physical help and support a 
person with mental illness or the immediate family member of a person with mental 
illness provides a person with mental illness. 
2.  General policy.  The department shall develop programs to: 
A.    Promote and support the development and implementation of comprehensive 
community support systems to , maximize the use of public and private insurance 
money to support community support systems and ensure community integration and 
the maintenance of a decent quality of life for persons adults and children with 
chronic serious and persistent mental illness in each of the mental health service areas 
in the State by fostering recovery and the support required for that recovery; and 
B.    Strengthen the capacity of families, natural networks, peer and family supports, 
self-help groups and other community resources in order to improve the support for 
persons and recovery of adults and children with chronic serious and persistent 
mental illness. 
3.  Duties.  The department shall: 
A.  Provide technical assistance for program development, promote effective 
coordination with health and other human services and develop new resources in 
order to improve the availability and accessibility of comprehensive community 
support services to persons with chronic serious and persistent mental illness; 
B.  Assess service needs, monitor service delivery related to these needs and evaluate 
the outcome of programs designed to meet these needs in order to enhance the quality 
and effectiveness of community support services; 
C.  Prepare a report that describes the system of community support services in each 
of the mental health service regions and statewide. 
(1)  The report must include both existing service resources and deficiencies in 
the system of services. 
(2)  The report must include an assessment of the roles and responsibilities of 
mental health agencies, human services agencies, health agencies and involved 
state departments and must suggest ways in which these agencies and 
departments can better cooperate to improve the service system for people with 
chronic serious and persistent mental illness. 
(3)  The report must be prepared biennially and must be submitted to the joint 
standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over human resources 
by December 15th of every even-numbered year. 
(4)  The committee shall review the report and make recommendations with 
respect to administrative and funding improvements in the system of community 
support services to persons with chronic serious and persistent mental illness; and 
D.  Participate in the coordination of services for persons with chronic serious and 
persistent mental illnesses with local transitional services coordination projects for 
students with disabilities, as established in Title 20-A, chapter 308, assigning 
appropriate regional staff and resources as available and necessary in each region to 
be served by a project. 
4.  Funding.  Federal mental health services block grant funds must be sought as long 
as they are available and, if obtained, allocated in their entirety to those peer and family 
support and natural support services, networks and self-help groups that are offered at no 
cost, easily accessible and not covered by insurance.  Decisions about such funding must 
be based on the written recommendations of the statewide quality improvement council 
under section 3609.  The funds must be used to sustain existing programs and groups that 
demonstrate quality of programming and over 1/2 of whose leadership is composed of 
persons with mental illness or the immediate family members of persons with mental 
illness. 
Sec. 2.  34-B MRSA §3609, as amended by PL 2007, c. 286, §9, is further 
amended to read: 
§3609.  Statewide quality improvement council 
The commissioner shall designate persons to be members to serve on a statewide 
quality improvement council to advise the commissioner on issues of system 
implementation that have statewide impact, including, but not limited to, the allocation of 
federal mental health services block grant funds, as required by section 3004, subsection 
4. Documentation of both the spending recommendations made by the council about 
federal mental health services block grant funds and the final allocation of those funds 
must be posted on the Department of Health and Human Services publicly accessible 
website within one month of a final decision or allocation.  The commissioner shall 
appoint such other members to serve on the council as required by law. 
SUMMARY 
This bill updates existing language governing the provisions of community support 
services for people with serious and persistent mental illness, requires the Department of 
Health and Human Services to allocate federal child and adult mental health services 
block grant funds to peer and family supports and requires the department to seek these 
funds as long as they are available and to document both the recommendations of the 
statewide quality improvement council for the expenditure of those funds and the 
allocation that is eventually made.