71-812. Behavioral Health Services Fund; created; use; investment.

(1) The Behavioral Health Services Fund is created. The fund shall be administered by the division and shall contain cash funds appropriated by the Legislature or otherwise received by the department for the provision of behavioral health services from any other public or private source and directed by the Legislature for credit to the fund.

(2) The fund shall be used to encourage and facilitate the statewide development and provision of community-based behavioral health services, including, but not limited to, (a) the provision of grants, loans, and other assistance for such purpose and (b) reimbursement to providers of such services.

(3)(a) Money transferred to the fund under section 76-903 shall be used for housing-related assistance for very low-income adults with serious mental illness, except that if the division determines that all housing-related assistance obligations under this subsection have been fully satisfied, the division may distribute any excess, up to twenty percent of such money, to regional behavioral health authorities for acquisition or rehabilitation of housing to assist such persons. The division shall manage and distribute such funds based upon a formula established by the division, in consultation with regional behavioral health authorities and the department, in a manner consistent with and reasonably calculated to promote the purposes of the public behavioral health system enumerated in section 71-803. The division shall contract with each regional behavioral health authority for the provision of such assistance. Each regional behavioral health authority may contract with qualifying public, private, or nonprofit entities for the provision of such assistance.

(b) For purposes of this subsection:

(i) Adult with serious mental illness means a person eighteen years of age or older who has, or at any time during the immediately preceding twelve months has had, a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder of sufficient duration to meet diagnostic criteria identified in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and which has resulted in functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life functions. Serious mental illness does not include DSM V codes, substance abuse disorders, or developmental disabilities unless such conditions exist concurrently with a diagnosable serious mental illness;

(ii) Housing-related assistance includes rental payments, utility payments, security and utility deposits, and other related costs and payments; and

(iii) Very low-income means a household income of fifty percent or less of the applicable median family income estimate as established by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

(4) Any money in the fund available for investment shall be invested by the state investment officer pursuant to the Nebraska Capital Expansion Act and the Nebraska State Funds Investment Act.

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