Florida Senate - 2014                              CS for SB 574
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs; and
       Senator Sobel
       
       
       
       
       586-01610-14                                           2014574c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to the establishment of a mental
    3         health first aid training program; requiring the
    4         Department of Children and Families to establish a
    5         mental health first aid training program; providing
    6         for a mental health first aid course to be offered by
    7         behavioral health managing entities or other community
    8         providers; providing program requirements; requiring
    9         instructors to be certified; requiring the department
   10         to submit a report to the Governor and the
   11         Legislature; providing for expiration of the program;
   12         providing an effective date.
   13          
   14  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   15  
   16         Section 1. Mental health first aid training program.—
   17         (1) The Department of Children and Families shall establish
   18  a mental health first aid training program to help the public
   19  identify and understand the signs of mental illness and
   20  substance use disorders and to provide the public with skills to
   21  help a person who is developing or experiencing a mental health
   22  or substance use problem.
   23         (2) The training program shall provide an interactive
   24  mental health first aid training course through contracts with
   25  behavioral health managing entities or other appropriate
   26  community providers. The contracting entity shall work
   27  cooperatively with local schools to provide training to the
   28  staff in schools as a first priority, when appropriate.
   29         (3) The training program must include, but is not limited
   30  to:
   31         (a) An overview of mental illness and substance use
   32  disorders and the need to reduce the stigma of mental illness.
   33         (b) Information on the potential risk factors and warning
   34  signs of mental illness or substance use disorders, including
   35  depression, anxiety, psychosis, eating disorders, and self
   36  injury, and common treatments for those conditions.
   37         (c) An action plan that encompasses the skills, resources,
   38  and knowledge required to assess the situation, select and
   39  implement appropriate interventions, and help an individual by
   40  providing appropriate professional, peer, social, or self-help
   41  care.
   42         (4) The Department of Children and Families shall ensure
   43  that instructors in the training program have been certified by
   44  a national authority on mental health first aid programs.
   45         (5) The Department of Children and Families shall submit a
   46  report on the effectiveness of the mental health first aid
   47  training program provided pursuant to this section, with
   48  recommendations regarding continued implementation of the
   49  program. The report shall be submitted to the Governor, the
   50  President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of
   51  Representatives by December 31, 2016.
   52         (6) This section expires June 30, 2017.
   53         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2014.