CHAPTER 587

An Act to establish a Commission on Mental Indigent and Geriatric
Patients for the purpose of a study and report; and to appropriate

funds.
(H 423]
Approved April 4, 1968

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. There is hereby created a Commission to conduct a study of
the care of the mentally ill in Virginia in the institutions and clinics
administered by the State Hospital Board and by the State Department
of Health, in comprehensive mental health centers receiving State aid,
and in general and psychiatric hospitals and of geriatric patients in State
hospitals, for the purpose of advising the General Assembly on the best
use of available resources of money and personnel. It shall be known as
the Commission on Mental Indigent and Geriatric Patients.

§ 2. The Commission shall give specific attention to:

(a) The desirability, methods and costs of decentralizing the State
hospital system into locally or regionally controlled comprehensive com-
munity mental health centers and into institutions under the administra-
tion of the State Hospital Board.

(b) The particular problem of the patients over the age of sixty-five
years and the desirability and feasibility of finding or creating alternative
facilities for them such as public or private nursing homes or outpatient
facilities for those aged who might thereby be kept with their families.

(c) Whether the position of Geriatrics Program Director should be
established in the Department of Mental Hygiene and Hospitals.

(d) The effect the development of community mental health services
can be expected to have on the number and type of patients in the State
hospital system.

(e) The advisability of stronger State support in developing and
financing community mental health services in the smaller cities and
rural areas.

(f) Measures required to assure accreditation of Virginia State
mental hospitals.

g) The most appropriate long range use of the four existing State
mental hospitals in terms of ultimate size and kinds of patients.

(h) The fullest possible use of resources other than those of the
Department of Mental Hygiene and Hospitals, including the use of psychi-
atric beds in general hospitals.

(i) The development of training programs for personnel in the
mental health care field at a Psychiatric Institute, in existing institutions
of higher learning, in hospitals and in clinics.

(j) The most efficient use of staff through development of accurate
job descriptions and adequate salary levels. —

Full use of available funds, including Medicare, Medicaid and
all other federal funds and private foundation grants.
(1) The advisability and feasibility of constructing a system of public
regional nursing home facilities throughout the State.

8. The Commission shall consist of fifteen members to be ap-
pointed by the Governor from the State at large. The Governor shall also
appoint the chairman. In addition, the Director of the Department of Wel-
fare and Institutions, the State Health Commissioner and the Commis-
sioner of Mental Hygiene and Hospitals shall be ex officio members of the
Commission. The members of the Commission shall receive no compensa-
tion for their services but shall be reimbursed for expenses incurred by
them in performing the work of the Commission.

§ 4. The Commission may employ agents, employees or consultants
and may rent such office space, equipment and facilities as may be neces-
sary to carry out the purposes of this act. All departments and agencies
of the State are directed to assist the Commission in its studies.

§ 5. The Commission shall conclude its study and report its recom-
mendations to the Governor and the General Assembly not later than
November fifteen, nineteen hundred sixty-nine.

There is hereby appropriated from the general fund of the State
preasury the sum of ten thousand dollars to carry out the purposes of

is act.