AUGUSTA - The Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee voted with unanimous support, of those present, to advance LD 540, sponsored by Rep. Ambureen Rana, D-Bangor, which would direct the Maine Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Behavioral Health to develop a request for proposal for two adult peer respite centers.
Peer respite is a voluntary, short-term, overnight program that provides community-based, non-clinical crisis support to help people in need of mental health services. These programs operate 24 hours per day in a homelike environment. While they do not replace traditional clinical services, they provide an alternative choice for those who are interested in seeking help from peer support specialists with similar lived experiences.
"We must take a multi-pronged approach to address our mental health care needs, and peer-run respite centers will help provide the care our community members are so desperately seeking," said Rana. "Peer-run respites can complement our overwhelmed psychiatric crisis services and are less costly and often more effective than the alternatives. They reduce usage of our emergency rooms and crisis stabilization unit visits while allowing peers to stay in their community."
The bill faces additional votes in the House and Senate in the coming weeks.
Rana is serving her first term in the Maine House and represents House District 21, which is home to many of Bangor's service providers, tent cities, homeless shelters and warming shelters. She serves on the Legislature's Joint Standing Committee on Taxation and the Joint Select Committee on Housing.
Contact:
Brian Lee [Rana], 305-965-2744