✅ Alliance Support

Click here to read The Alliance’s testimony.

In 2017 and 2018, the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) reorganized existing Regional Action Councils (focused on substance abuse prevention) and Regional Mental Health Boards. DMHAS replaced them with five Regional Behavioral Health Action Organizations (RBHAOs), one for each of the state’s designated mental health regions.

This bill codifies existing practice by allowing the DMHAS commissioner to contract with one or more nonprofit organizations to operate as RBHAOs, and repeals the laws that established the prior councils and boards. It requires each RBHAO to serve as a strategic community partner responsible for (1) behavioral health planning, education, and promotion; (2) coordinating behavioral health issues prevention; and (3) advocacy for behavioral health needs and services within its mental health region. The bill gives the RBHAOs certain duties and in doing so, requires them to solicit advice and input from the community.

The bill also makes several corresponding statutory changes to effectuate the transfer of duties from the prior boards and councils to the RBHAOs. For example, it requires the RBHAOs, rather than the boards or councils as applicable, to (1) designate individuals to serve on certain entities and (2) consult with DMHAS on the department’s development of the state’s substance abuse prevention and treatment plan.

The bill makes other related changes, such as (1) as of October 1, 2022, reducing the membership of the state’s Board of Mental Health and Addiction Services and making other changes affecting the board (§ 4) and (2) specifying that 51 to 60% of the total catchment area council membership must be people with lived experience of a behavioral health disorder, not just consumers generally (§ 9).