Tennessee Code 33-6-103 – Priority population – Standards of care – Funding – Legislative intent – Contract with licensed community mental health agency
(a) The department shall identify adults with severe disabling mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbance.
Terms Used In Tennessee Code 33-6-103
Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
Department: means the department of mental health and substance abuse services. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
Mental illness: means a psychiatric disorder, alcohol dependence, or drug dependence, but does not include intellectual disability or other developmental disabilities as defined in title 52. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
Serious emotional disturbance: means a condition in a child who currently or at any time during the past year has had a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder of sufficient duration to meet psychiatric diagnostic criteria that results in functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits the child's role or functioning in family, school, or community activities and includes any mental disorder, regardless of whether it is of biological etiology. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b) Persons described in subsection (a) are a priority population for the department’s mental health services and supports. The department shall set the array of services and supports for this priority population annually in its plan. The state will fund and the department will maintain the array of services and supports for persons in this priority population. Consistent with applicable eligibility requirements, the state may provide the funding for the services through the medicaid program or any waiver granted under the medicaid program, specifically including TennCare, other public funds, or private funds.(c) It is the legislative intent that the department of mental health and substance abuse services maintain the funding amount and the extent of services of the behavioral health safety net of the state at least at the annualized levels provided as of January 1, 2009. In the event that appropriations to the department are not sufficient to continue funding these critical services at a level at least equivalent to the services being provided as of January 1, 2009, then the department shall provide a report to the planning and policy council created by § 33-1-401 and the fiscal review committee created by § 3-7-101. The report shall identify all means the department intends to use to increase resources available.(d) The department may contract with any licensed community mental health agency for the provision of services under the behavioral health safety net, as long as the community mental health agency is able to sufficiently demonstrate to the department that the community mental health agency is able to provide to individuals who will be served under the behavioral health safety net all of the behavioral health services that are included within adult behavioral health services for the seriously and persistently mentally ill, as defined in § 71-5-103.
