Monday, August 8, 2022
Mental Health Law Expanded
The Senate and House recently passed the Mental Health ABC Act: Addressing Barriers to Care bill to continue the process of reforming the way mental health care is delivered in Massachusetts, with the goal of ensuring that people get the mental health care they need when they need it.
This bill takes major and necessary steps to advance and strengthen the delivery of mental health care in our Commonwealth, by securing parity with physical health care, and moving pediatric mental health patients expeditiously from emergency departments to more appropriate treatment settings. I am pleased that amendments that I offered to address mental health needs of police, firefighters, EMTs, and other first-responders are included as well as the requirement that online portals with updated information and resource will be available in real-time.
