HB574 • 2026

MENTAL HEALTH: Provides for the membership of the Mental Health Advocacy Service

Education Healthcare

Enacted

This bill passed the Legislature and reached final enactment based on the latest official action.

Sponsor: Annie Spell
Last action: 2026-05-22
Official status: Signed by the Governor - Act 306
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary and digest do not provide specific details about how board members are chosen or their roles, leaving these aspects unclear.

Mental Health Advocacy Service Membership

This act updates the membership rules for the Mental Health Advocacy Service board to include specific representatives from certain law and medical schools, as well as members from the Louisiana State Medical Society and the Louisiana State Bar Association.

What This Bill Does

Changes the members of the Mental Health Advocacy Service board to include deans or designated faculty members from specified law and medical schools in Louisiana.
Includes a representative from the Louisiana State Medical Society on the board.
Adds a member from the Louisiana State Bar Association to the board.

Who It Names or Affects

The Mental Health Advocacy Service
Law and medical schools mentioned in the bill
Louisiana State Medical Society
Louisiana State Bar Association

Terms To Know

Mental Health Advocacy Service: A board that works to support mental health initiatives in Louisiana.

Limits and Unknowns

This act does not specify how the board members will be chosen or their roles.
It is unclear what changes, if any, this act will bring to existing mental health services in Louisiana.

Bill History

2026-05-22 H
Effective date: 08/01/2026.
2026-05-22 H
Signed by the Governor. Becomes Act No. 306.
2026-05-19 H
Sent to the Governor for executive approval.
2026-05-19 S
Signed by the President of the Senate.
2026-05-19 H
Enrolled and signed by the Speaker of the House.
2026-05-19 H
Received from the Senate without amendments.
2026-05-18 S
Rules suspended. Read by title, passed by a vote of 36 yeas and 0 nays, and ordered returned to the House. Motion to reconsider tabled.
2026-05-11 S
Reported without Legislative Bureau amendments. Read by title and passed to third reading and final passage.
2026-05-07 S
Read by title and referred to the Legislative Bureau.
2026-05-06 S
Reported favorably.
2026-03-30 S
Read second time by title and referred to the Committee on Health and Welfare.
2026-03-25 S
Received in the Senate. Read first time by title and placed on the Calendar for a second reading.
2026-03-25 H
Read third time by title, roll called on final passage, yeas 102, nays 0. Finally passed, title adopted, ordered to the Senate.
2026-03-23 H
Scheduled for floor debate on 03/25/2026.
2026-03-23 H
Read by title, ordered engrossed, passed to 3rd reading.
2026-03-18 H
Reported favorably (9-0).
2026-03-09 H
Read by title, under the rules, referred to the Committee on Health and Welfare.
2026-02-27 H
First appeared in the Interim Calendar on 2/27/2026.
2026-02-26 H
Under the rules, provisionally referred to the Committee on Health and Welfare.
2026-02-26 H
Prefiled.

Official Summary Text

MENTAL HEALTH: Provides for the membership of the Mental Health Advocacy Service

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

ENROLLED
2026 Regular Session
HOUSE BILL NO. 574
BY REPRESENTATIVES SPELL AND CHASSION
1 AN ACT
2 To amend and reenact R.S. 28:64(A)(3), relative to the Mental Health Advocacy Service
3 board of trustees; to provide for the name change of the state's mental health
4 organizations that are members of the Mental Health Advocacy Service board; and
5 to provide for related matters.
6 Be it enacted by the Legislature of Louisiana:
7 Section 1. R.S. 28:64(A)(3) is hereby amended and reenacted to read as follows:
8 §64. Mental Health Advocacy Service; creation; board of trustees; organization;
9 powers; duties
10 A.
11 * * *
12 (3) The service shall be governed by a board of trustees consisting of nine
13 members to be made up of the deans of the law schools or their designated faculty
14 members from Loyola University of the South, Southern University and Agricultural
15 and Mechanical College Law Schools and from the medical and law schools of
16 Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College and Tulane
17 University of Louisiana, the president of the Mental Health Association of Louisiana
18 Louisiana Mental Health Association or his representative, and a selected member
Page 1 of 2
CODING: Words in struck through type are deletions from existing law; words underscored
are additions.
HB NO. 574 ENROLLED
1 from the Louisiana Medical Society Louisiana State Medical Society and the
2 Louisiana State Bar Association.
3 * * *
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA
APPROVED:
Page 2 of 2
CODING: Words in struck through type are deletions from existing law; words underscored
are additions.