Sec. 4. Best practices
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The Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, shall develop and publish best practices relating to the deployment of mental health professionals acting as first responders. The best practices under subsection
(a)shall— be informed by lessons learned from the grant program under section 520O of the Public Health Service Act, as added by section 2; and include best practices for the proper handling and dispatch of a report of an emergency described in each of subparagraphs (A), (B), and
(C)of section 520O(a)(1) of the Public Health Service Act, as added by section 2, including best practices for training in— the principles and techniques in processing calls for persons who— are experiencing a mental health crisis; may have a mental illness, a substance use disorder, a co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder, or an intellectual or developmental disability; or otherwise appear to need the immediate support of mental health professionals; the principles of deescalation; and developmentally appropriate techniques. The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall— not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, develop and publish initial best practices under this section; and not less than every 5 years thereafter, develop and publish updated best practices under this section. In this section, the term first responder has the meaning given to such term in section 520O of the Public Health Service Act, as added by section 2.