This part is intended to organize and finance mental health services in skilled nursing facilities designated as institutions for mental disease, in a way that will promote the well-being of the residents. It is furthermore intended to effectively utilize existing resources in the delivery of mental health services to severely and persistently mentally disabled persons; to ensure continued receipt of federal funds; to minimize the fiscal exposure of counties; to maintain state responsibility for licensing and certification; to maintain services to individual county consumers at the 1990-91 fiscal year levels; and to provide a mechanism for the orderly transition of programmatic and fiscal responsibility from the state to the counties, in a way that will maintain the stability and viability of the industry.

(Added by Stats. 1991, Ch. 89, Sec. 198. Effective June 30, 1991.)