INDIANAPOLIS — A bill that would revamp how Indiana approaches mental health and the resources it provides to Hoosiers who are in crisis passed out of the House Monday.
The Senate already passed SB 1 earlier this session.
The work isn’t over.
Lawmakers still have to figure out how they’re going to fund some of the proposals in the bill. This is a budget year, and that means lawmakers are still working on how much the state is going to spend over the next two years.
Supporters of the bill say it’s time to overhaul a mental health system that’s been in place since John F. Kennedy was president.
The bill proposes setting up a crisis hotline for people to call if someone is having a mental health issue. It also provides for a team of mental health providers to respond to a situation where a person is in crisis.
The proposed law also sets up crisis stabilization units for follow-up care.
“Senate Bill 1 is committed to creating a behavioral health system that is for today’s world someone to call, someone to respond and someplace to go,” said Rep. Ann Vermillion (R-District 31) one of the bill’s 60 or more co-sponsors in the House.
The passage of SB 1 comes just as Indianapolis’s Fraternal Order of Police is calling on IMPD to stop asking its officers to respond to mental health calls.
Last week, two IMPD officers were criminally charged in the death of 39-year-old Herman Whitfield III. Whitfield died after police responded to his parents’ home after they called 911 for Whitfield, who was having a mental health emergency.
If the bill becomes law, families would be able to call a 988 hotline to get help from mental health professionals, instead of calling 911 for police.
Some lawmakers in the House have suggested funding for the proposal should come through raising the tax on cigarettes. Others want to add a fee to your cell phone bill.
“The fact that, what’s occurring while we’re debating this, our legislators are debating this and they’re trying to figure out from a cigarette tax, this tax, that tax, in the interim, we’re dumping it in the laps of our law enforcement officers and what we’re saying is, to our representatives is, ‘We’re done doing that,’” said Indianapolis FOP President Rick Snyder.
IMPD responded to Snyder’s request for officer to stop responding to mental health calls with the following statement:
“The IMPD is constantly evaluating our policies, training, and response to runs involving those experiencing a mental health crisis and other calls for service. We plan to meet with our public safety partners in the near future to discuss this very topic. Working together we can improve the safety for everyone in our community.”