Over 1,200 bills have been introduced so far this session with no more in sight (remember there are always ways to introduce a bill if necessary).  We do know that the week of February 16th is the final week for bills to be heard in committee in their house of origin (that means Senate bills have to be heard in the Senate by at least one committee; the same for House bills in the House).  Any bill that has not been heard is effectively "dead" for the session (veteran Capitol-watchers know nothing is ever truly dead until the "Fat Lady Sings Sine Die", meaning that the legislature is out of Session). March 20th is the final day that bills can be heard in committee without special permission from the Speaker of the House or President of the Senate.  The reality is that most bills are never heard in committee, because there are many roadblocks in the process.  To find out more about the introduced bills, check out this link.

The more interesting aspects of the bills in play and how they will impact our lives are found in the policies being debated.  

MHA-AZ's first and second priorities for the 2015 session are to assure that the AHCCCS restoration and expansion are preserved, and to maintain current state funding for non-AHCCCS members.  So far, no changes have been proposed by the Governor's or the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) budgets.  Fingers crossed that in the coming weeks no changes will disrupt those plans.

The headlines about the planned transfer of the behavioral health system to AHCCCS by July 2016 have kept many on pins and needles.  Rumors last week about a bill being introduced to do just that have now been confirmed, but no specific bill has yet been revealed.  It's necessary to stay focused and  see how the community input process will work, since there are numerous moving pieces to the puzzle that is known as the public behavioral health system.  

Another priority for MHA-AZ is to ban solitary confinement in jail or prison for nonviolent mentally ill persons.  In light of the recent successful ACLU lawsuit addressing some of our concerns on this front, we were hopeful that it would be possible to actually ban the practice through legislation.  The only ray of hope on this front is HB 2498 which would require the Department of Corrections to provide a quarterly report about the practice as it applied to prisoners with a mental illness.  The bill is struggling to get out of Committee this week.  We will need further debate and discussion as this proposal moves along.

With the growth in our state's population and expansion of health coverage, advocates are supporting bills that would expand a state primary loan program that helps health professionals pay off student loans if they practice in rural or high-need shortage areas.  The bill will now include behavioral health professionals in the program.  The bills that MHA-AZ supports are HB 2495 and SB 1194.

Next month we'll review the status of legislation that supports criminal justice diversion programs at all stages, including establishing mental health courts meant to reduce the number of people with mental health needs being sent to jail or prison.  Outcomes, at this point in the session, are mixed.  Debate around the Governor's request for additional 3,000 private prison beds has focused attention on the issue.

Josh Mozell became a member of the MHA-Arizona Board of Directors in the fall of 2014. His journey to the Board began years before his appointment, during a conversation with a friend. The friend described her job as a case manager, working for something called "the RBHA." She explained how each and every day she was able to go out and help those with a serious mental illness, how she worked with the homeless shelters, at the psych hospitals, and with the various benefit agencies. Her job was to empower those with schizophrenia, mood disorders, and other Axis I diagnoses. Because of his family's history with mental illness, Josh was riveted by the stories she told. Without a second thought, he changed his major from Business to Psychology.