(405 ILCS 160/20)

Sec. 20. Behavioral health crisis workforce.

(a) The Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health, with meaningful stakeholder engagement shall do all of the following:

(1) Examine eligibility for participation as an Engagement Specialist under the Division of Mental Health's Crisis Care Continuum Program. As used in this paragraph, "Engagement Specialist" means an individual with the lived experience of recovery from a mental health condition, substance use disorder, or both.

(2) Consider many additional experiences, including but not limited to, being a parent or family member of a person with a mental health or substance use disorder, being from a disadvantaged or marginalized population that would be valuable to this role and can help provide a more culturally competent crisis response. This includes the need for crisis responders who are African American, Latinx, have been incarcerated, experienced homelessness, identify as LGBTQ+, or are veterans.

(3) Consider how that expansion impacts the unique training and support needs of Engagement Specialists from different populations.

(4) Allow providers to use their clinical discretion to determine responses by one individual or by a two-person team depending on the nature of the call with access to an Engagement Specialist.

(5) Collect feedback on other policies to address the behavioral health workforce issues.

(b) The Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health, shall implement a process to obtain meaningful stakeholder engagement not later than 6 months after the effective date of this Act.

(Source: P.A. 103-337, eff. 7-28-23.)