Public Comment from the disAbility Law Center of Virginia (dLCV)

There does not appear to be any good reason to oppose DBHDS’ recension of these unenforceable and admittedly ineffective “Discharge Protocols.”   More than ten years after the Protocols release, they still have not gained widespread application (or even recognition) among the state hospital and CSB discharge planners to whom they were intended to apply.  

Nevertheless, the Protocols do appear to represent DBHDS’ effort to organize and improve the quality and coordination of discharge planning services and the promptness of discharges from our state hospitals.  As such, dLCV finds it concerning that DBHDS apparently intends to rescind the Protocols without proposing a more effective alternative.  

dLCV requests that DBHDS exercise its authority and mandates to set state hospital policies and to contract with the community services boards to establish and implement a replacement policy or system which will effectively improve the quality of discharge planning services and the timeliness of state hospital discharges in this Commonwealth.   DBHDS should advance such a proposal for effective action at or before the time they rescind the present Discharge Protocols.