County Patients’ Rights Advocates Training
County Patients’ Rights Advocates Training
Each year, COPR holds an advocacy training for County Title 9 Patients’ Rights Advocates (PRA). This training is not intended for other mental health staff. The training is held under a mandate found in Welfare and Institutions Code, section 5512.
County Patients’ Rights Advocates Training
The California Office of Patients’ Rights (COPR) is the identified entity responsible for providing training to County Patients’ Rights Advocates (PRA) in accordance with Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC) 5512 and pursuant to a contract with the Department of State Hospitals and Department of Health Care Services.
Effective January 1, 2019, the training materials for County PRAs are required to be accessible online, and all County Patients’ Rights Advocates whom have been employed as a County PRA for less than one year on that date are required to complete the following online training within 90 days.
The online training materials currently consists of 10 chapters, which are the basic training materials required for new PRAs. Upon completion of the online training, County PRAs will need to enter the email address of their County Mental Director in order for the County to be notified the PRA has completed this training. Electronic verification of the completed training will then be sent automatically to the Patients’ Rights Committee of the California Behavioral Health Planning Council, as is required by Assembly Bill 2316 and Welfare and Institutions Code 5524.