SB44

What it does

• Gives minors the right to at least one hour of confidential phone or video calls with parents each week unless a court order forbids it or a doctor says it is not good for treatment.
• Requires psychiatric hospitals to tell the Department of Health and the minor's parent within one business day if they use seclusion, physical restraint, mechanical restraints, or chemical medication on a minor.
• Orders the Department of Health to publish an annual report online about how often restraints are used and what medications were involved in those cases.
• Mandates that the Department of Health conduct two unannounced inspections each year at hospitals where minors stay for more than three nights in the previous year.
• Requires inspectors to interview at least half of the minor patients during these visits without hospital staff being present.