PPAC California Legislative Updates

Lanterman Petris Short Act. The California State Assembly LPS Hearings will be held December 15. In preparation PPAC ad-hoc LPS task force convened a couple of nights ago. PPAC’s board recently re-adopted the Lanterman Petris Short Act Task Force II report and recommendations (2012) as policy. Also, recommended reading, the [...]

A lot is at stake. Please vote. Don’t be tempted to sit this one out. The stakes for mental health programming in the state budget amount to close to $10 billion in new funding – unprecedented in size and scope – the spending of which could be thrust into uncertainty, [...]

Question of the day: Is AB 988 too big to fail? A 988-telephone number as a behavioral health alternative to summoning law enforcement through 911 calls has broad support and many advantages. Chief among them would be reducing the 16-fold increased likelihood of fatal encounters with law enforcement for persons in [...]

AB 890. Next steps. The full Board of the Board of Registered Nursing meets on August 4-5. Among the items on agenda are possible modifications to NP education as well as discussion of the requirements of AB 890. There is an opportunity to view the proceedings and/or make public comment.

If you remember, that’s the combined amount of state windfall income along with a huge chunk of federal stimulus funds proposed mostly for one-time spending in California. An effort of this scale has never been attempted, making this year’s budget historic in size and sweep. The vast and sprawling array [...]

PPAC Government Affairs Committee Chair, William Arroyo, MD, and I gave input to a recent California Medical Association specialty society meeting to discuss and formulate an AB 890 strategy for the Board of Registered Nursing. (The BRN is ramping up activities of it’s Nurse Practitioner Advisory Group). CMA is setting [...]