CHAPTER 568
An Act to direct the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to establish a work group to study and make recommendations regarding the cases in which the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner shall conduct an investigation of the death of a person who dies while receiving services from a program licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.
[H 659]
Approved April 11, 2022
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. § 1. The Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (the Department) shall establish a work group, which shall include the Commissioner of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, the Director of the Department of Criminal Justice Services, the Commissioner of Social Services, the State Registrar of Vital Records, and the Chief Medical Examiner, or their designees, and representatives of the disAbility Law Center of Virginia, the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, the Virginia Association of Community Services Boards, providers of behavioral health services licensed by the Department, law-enforcement agencies, emergency medical services providers, community stakeholders such as social workers, community mental health providers, and case managers, and other appropriate agency staff and other stakeholders, to study and make recommendations regarding appropriate investigations, including recommendations regarding when autopsies may be appropriate, of the deaths of individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities who are residents of the Commonwealth and who die while receiving services from a program licensed by the Department. The work group shall report its findings and recommendations to the Governor and the Chairmen of the House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions and the Senate Committee on Education and Health by November 1, 2022.