California Government Code 13963.1 – (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the …
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(1) Without treatment, approximately 50 percent of people who survive a traumatic, violent injury experience lasting or extended psychological or social difficulties. Untreated psychological trauma often has severe economic consequences, including overuse of costly medical services, loss of income, failure to return to gainful employment, loss of medical insurance, and loss of stable housing.
Terms Used In California Government Code 13963.1
- Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
- Board: means the California Victim Compensation Board. See California Government Code 13951
- Crime: includes an act of terrorism, as defined in Section 2331 of Title 18 of the United States Code, committed against a resident of the state, whether or not the act occurs within the state. See California Government Code 13951
- Law enforcement: means every district attorney, municipal police department, sheriff's department, district attorney's office, county probation department, and social services agency, the Department of Justice, the Department of Corrections, the Department of the Youth Authority, the Department of the California Highway Patrol, the police department of any campus of the University of California, California State University, or community college, and every agency of the State of California expressly authorized by statute to investigate or prosecute law violators. See California Government Code 13951
- Process: includes a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings of either a civil or criminal nature. See California Government Code 22
- Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
- Victim: means an individual who sustains injury or death as a direct result of a crime as specified in subdivision (e) of Section 13955. See California Government Code 13951
(2) Victims of crime should receive timely and effective mental health treatment.
(3) The board shall administer a program to evaluate applications and award grants to trauma recovery centers.
(b) The board shall award a grant only to a trauma recovery center that meets all of the following criteria:
(1) The trauma recovery center demonstrates that it serves as a community resource by providing services, including, but not limited to, making presentations and providing training to law enforcement, community-based agencies, and other health care providers on the identification and effects of violent crime.
(2) Any other related criteria required by the board.
(3) The trauma recovery center uses the core elements established in Section 13963.2.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature to provide an annual appropriation of two million dollars ($2,000,000) per year from the Restitution Fund.
(d) The board may award a grant providing funding for up to a maximum period of three years. Any portion of a grant that a trauma recovery center does not use within the specified grant period shall revert to the Restitution Fund. The board may award consecutive grants to a trauma recovery center to prevent a lapse in funding.
(e) The board, when considering grant applications, shall give preference to a trauma recovery center that conducts outreach to, and serves, both of the following:
(1) Crime victims who typically are unable to access traditional services, including, but not limited to, victims who are homeless, chronically mentally ill, of diverse ethnicity, members of immigrant and refugee groups, disabled, who have severe trauma-related symptoms or complex psychological issues, or juvenile victims, including minors who have had contact with the juvenile dependency or justice system.
(2) Victims of a wide range of crimes, including, but not limited to, victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, physical assault, shooting, stabbing, human trafficking, and vehicular assault, and family members of homicide victims.
(f) The trauma recovery center sites shall be selected by the board through a well-defined selection process that takes into account the rate of crime and geographic distribution to serve the greatest number of victims.
(g) A trauma recovery center that is awarded a grant shall do both of the following:
(1) Report to the board annually on how grant funds were spent, how many clients were served (counting an individual client who receives multiple services only once), units of service, staff productivity, treatment outcomes, and patient flow throughout both the clinical and evaluation components of service.
(2) In compliance with federal statutes and rules governing federal matching funds for victims’ services, each center shall submit any forms and data requested by the board to allow the board to receive the 60 percent federal matching funds for eligible victim services and allowable expenses.
(h) For purposes of this section, a trauma recovery center provides, including, but not limited to, all of the following resources, treatments, and recovery services to crime victims:
(1) Mental health services.
(2) Assertive community-based outreach and clinical case management.
(3) Coordination of care among medical and mental health care providers, law enforcement agencies, and other social services.
(4) Services to family members and loved ones of homicide victims.
(5) A multidisciplinary staff of clinicians that includes psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers, and may include case managers and peer counselors.
(Amended by Stats. 2017, Ch. 587, Sec. 2. (AB 1384) Effective January 1, 2018.)