Impact in Virginia
Each fall, BHC members vote on a range of policy options and recommendations to develop a list of BHC-supported legislative recommendations. Each recommendation is introduced by a BHC member during the next session as a bill or budget amendment, as appropriate. The policy options and recommendations originate from BHC staff research, as well as from research conducted by other legislative study commissions. In 2022 and 2023, the BHC supported multiple recommendations stemming from studies conducted by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC). Legislative action pertaining to the structure of the Commission was also taken.
The Behavioral Health Commission measures its performance using the proportion of recommendations supported by the Commission that is implemented, subset between the implementation of (1) options and recommendations generated by BHC staff and (2) recommendations provided by other research entities.
More information on BHC report recommendations and on the bills and budget amendments introduced to implement the BHC’s legislative recommendations can be found here.
| BHC-supported recommendations implemented as of 2024 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| All recommendations # adopted by Commission # implemented by legislative or budget action % implemented by legislative or budget action |
2023 12 10 83% |
2024 43 25 58% |
Cumulative 55 35 64% |
|
BHC staff-developed options and recommendations # implemented by legislative or budget action |
2023 7 7 100% 5 71% |
2024 21 20 95% 12 60% |
Cumulative 28 27 96% 17 63% |
| JLARC staff-developed recommendations # adopted by Commission # implemented by legislative or budget action % implemented by legislative or budget action |
20231 5 5 100% |
20242 23 13 52% |
Cumulative 28 18 64% |
1 Recommendations contained in two JLARC reports (2022) entitled CSB Behavioral Health Services and Pandemic Impact on K-12 Public Education
2 Recommendations contained in the JLARC report entitled Virginia’s State Psychiatric Hospitals (2023)