SB 330 went into effect in Florida July 1, 2024. This bill is part of the Live Healthy initiative, which creates behavioral health teaching hospitals. The hospitals will train mental health service providers, including psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and mental health counselors.
The bill identifies four hospitals to serve as pilot behavioral teaching hospitals. These hospitals include the following: Tampa General Hospital in collaboration with the University of South Florida, UF Health Shands Hospital and UF Health Jacksonville in collaboration with the University of Florida, and Jackson Memorial Hospital in collaboration with the University of Miami. The bill also states that any hospital can apply to participate.
The participating hospitals must collaborate with other university colleges and schools of medicine, nursing, psychology, social work, pharmacy, public health, or other relevant disciplines to promote and enhance a modernized behavioral health system of care. Additionally, the hospitals must provide inpatient and outpatient behavioral health care, address system-wide behavioral health needs, and provide treatment and care for those who need long-term voluntary or involuntary civil commitment.
We will revise our 8 hour and 4 hour Florida Laws and Rules courses accordingly as more information about the implementation and impact of this bill is released. Those courses can be found here.