GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2007

H                                                                                                                                                    1

HOUSE BILL 1962

Short Title:     Psych. Trtmnt. Facility Funds/So.West NC.		(Public)
Sponsors:	Representatives West and Haire (Primary Sponsors).
Referred to:	Appropriations.

May 8, 2007

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS TO THE Department of Health and Human Services TO ESTABLISH A LICENSED JUVENILE PSYCHIATRIC RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT OR LEVEL IV FACILITY IN SOUTHWESTERN NORTH CAROLINA.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services, the sum of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for the 2007‑2008 fiscal year.  These funds shall be used for the establishment of a Juvenile Psychiatric Residential Treatment or Level IV Facility (PRTF/Level IV) in Southwestern North Carolina.  The funds shall also be used to meet any new licensing requirements of the Division of Facility Services and to provide repairs to an existing nonoperating former State facility that served as a multipurpose juvenile group home funded in 1992 through the Prison Bond Referendum.  This group home facility was closed by the State in 2002 and reverted to the control of Macon County , North Carolina.  The newly established facility shall serve the rising demand for PRTF/Level IV services in Southwestern North Carolina, which are currently provided only out of the region and as far away as Wilmington and Greensboro, as well as out‑of‑state.

SECTION 2.  Funds appropriated in this act are contingent upon execution of a contract with a service provider for the facility.

SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2007.