2017 General Assembly: Bills Involving Health, Mental Illness, and Disability

Note: Bills can still be filed until January 20th, so new items may be added.

To see my master list of 2017 legislative topics, click here.

The letters before a bill’s number designate its chamber of origin. HB= House Bill, SB= Senate Bill, HR= House Resolution, etc.

Bills to support:

SB 1005: Mandates that community service boards and behavioral health authorities must, effective July 1 2018, provide same-day access to mental health screening services, outpatient primary care screening and monitoring services, and follow up for people IDed as needing assistance getting primary health services. As of 2021, must also include a bunch more.

SB 1027: Allows certain approved providers to manufacture and dispense cannabis-derived medical products for the treatment of intractable epilepsy. Currently, these clinically-proven treatments are not available, even under a doctor’s orders, because cannabis is not legal in Virginia.

SB 933: Mandates that the annual training for sheriff’s deputies and correctional officers at jails must include mental health first aid. Many people experiencing mental health crises end up in jail instead of at hospitals; training of this type might improve how jails handle them.

HB 1480: Similar to the above, requires police officers to be trained in mental health awareness.

SB 841: Makes certain medical use an affirmative defense for some marijuana-related charges. Marijuana is clinically proven to benefit sufferers of some conditions, but it is not legal in Virginia.

HB 1426: Directs the Commissioner of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and the Director of Criminal Justice Services to come up with an alternative mode of transport for people being involuntarily committed to psychiatric institutions, so that the police don’t have to be called.

HB 1522: Establishes that if a person convicted of a capital crime had a severe mental illness at the time their crime was committed, they cannot be sentenced to death.

SB 940: Mandates that jail inmates be screened for mental illnesses and evaluated regarding their need for services within 72 hours. This will help address the issue of mentally ill people being warehoused in jail cells without services.

March on Monument: a local demonstration in support of the Jan. 21st Washington DC marches

Saturday, January 14th 2017, from 1-4pm, on Monument Avenue, there will be a local march to support the January 21st Women's March on Washington, which is protesting the ascending Trump administration's hostility towards women, people of color, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ people, the disabled, assault survivors, Natives, and the working class in general. 

The march will depart from the Robert E. Lee memorial at Monument Avenue and North Allen Street at 1pm, and proceed to North Boulevard. The organizers haven't released a route, but if the march ends at the Stonewall Jackson statue, that will be a distance of 0.8 miles. 

For more info and to RSVP, see this link. To add this event to your calendar, click here.