Legislation and Advocacy

Objectives

On January 27, 2022 the NAMI Montana Board met to set our Legislative priorities for the 2023 Legislature.  While we have other bills and will support other issues, these Legislative Objectives are our rallying points.

• Support funding for community mental health services, included integrated primary care and co-occurring substance abuse treatment.
• Support funding for mental health crisis care for children, adolescents and adults; including community commitments for adults that meet current inpatient commitment criteria.
• Improve transition services for children aging out of the children’s mental health treatment system.
• Oppose solitary confinement in both the treatment and corrections systems, realizing that there is still a need for short-term protective custody for the safety of the person, caregivers, and others.
• Require transition services from public health and correction institutions into communities to prevent tragedies, improve recovery and reduce recidivism.
• Support research-based suicide prevention programs in all Montana schools.
• Expand workforce retention and development initiatives, such as loan forgiveness, pay incentives, clinical education programs, and housing support.
• Develop, expand, and promote mental health courts,
• Develop and expand supported housing.

Specific Legislative Efforts

As of December 2022, NAMI Montana has four specific efforts at this legislature: specifically around (1) sustainable funding for the mental health treatment system, (2) sustainable funding for mental health crisis services, (3) youth suicide prevention, and (4) improving the policies for treatment courts and forensic conditional releases.

There are eight different bill drafts that are tied to those four issues.  The infographics below describe these efforts in detail.