AB 741 Summary

• Authorizes short-term residential treatment centers to operate as children's crisis residential centers to divert children experiencing mental health crises from psychiatric hospitalization.

• Requires the State Department of Social Services to establish regulations for children's crisis residential centers, including limits on length of stay (10 days, extendable to 20 days per six-month period), facility size (fewer than 16 beds), and 24/7 staffing requirements.

• Directs the State Department of Health Care Services to establish interim Medi-Cal rates for children's crisis residential services in consultation with county behavioral health directors and provider associations.

• Allows children's crisis residential centers to accept admissions from parents, guardians, or representatives of public/private entities for children in mental health crisis who would otherwise require emergency department or psychiatric hospital admission.

• Includes crisis residential treatment services provided at children's crisis residential centers as eligible uses of funds under the Investment in Mental Health Wellness Act of 2013.