Mental health policy highlights of Oklahoma’s 2025 legislative session

Mental health was a central issue for much of the Oklahoma Legislature’s 2025 session, with months of concern over the state mental health department’s finances culminating in the unprecedented removal of the agency's commissioner.

Beyond lawmakers’ scrutiny of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, legislators also passed several important bills to empower a stronger behavioral health workforce, improve access to mental health care for Medicaid managed care enrollees, and improve counties’ access to critical funding for mental health and diversion programs.  

The past several months have underscored Oklahoma’s need for a strong and capable mental health department — one that is focused above all on meeting vulnerable Oklahomans’ mental health and substance use needs.  

Fortunately, the state has directed significant resources to behavioral health, and providers are working to help Oklahomans every day. Through the drama and disruption of the past session, lawmakers’ keen focus on ways to improve mental health across our state was a bright spot.  

We look forward to seeing how lawmakers use this momentum in the next session. Real challenges are still ahead for Oklahoma, and it’s time to get back on track.

Jump to section:

• Healthy Minds' priorities
• Attention on ODMHSAS leadership and finances
• Competency lawsuit and consent decree
• Other key mental health bills
• "Dormant" bills that could be revived next session

Healthy Minds’ priorities

Each of Healthy Minds’ priority bills became law this session and will take effect in the coming months:  

• HB 2261, by Rep. Nicole Miller (R-Edmond) and Sen. Paul Rosino (R-Oklahoma City), allows Oklahoma to join the Social Work Licensure Compact. This means social workers with a license from other compact member states can practice in Oklahoma — an important step toward solving Oklahoma’s behavioral health workforce shortages.

• HB 2049, by Rep. Preston Stinson (R-Edmond) and Sen. Todd Gollihare (R-Kellyville), holds Medicaid managed care entities to the same standards for mental health parity reporting that already apply to commercial insurers. By requiring transparency around parity, the state will be able to better monitor managed care enrollees' access to behavioral health services through Medicaid.

• SB 251, by Sen. Gollihare and Rep. Stinson, sets a minimum amount of funding allocated for each county through the County Community Safety Investment Fund. These dollars, the result of cost savings from fewer incarcerations after voters passed State Questions 780 and 781 in 2016, must be spent on mental health, substance use, and criminal justice diversion programs. As a result of the bill, even Oklahoma’s smallest counties will receive at least $62,500.

Healthy Minds exists to support Oklahoma leaders in transforming mental health outcomes. Since 2020, we have now partnered with lawmakers to draft and pass 15 pieces of legislation to address critical gaps and opportunities identified by our research into the state's needs.

Attention on ODMHSAS leadership and finances

In February, then-ODMHSAS commissioner Allie Friesen alerted the Legislature that the department was headed for a funding shortfall for fiscal year 2025, which ends June 30.  

After a series of contentious public hearings and multiple investigations (several of which are ongoing), lawmakers provided just over $30 million in supplemental funding to the department to cover the budget gap.  

In total, the legislature appropriated about $383 million to ODMHSAS for FY 2026 via SB 1140, maintaining funding at comparable levels to the current fiscal year as the department revisits its financial needs.  

Lawmakers also opted to put guardrails on the department’s finances, requiring the Office of Management and Enterprise Services to oversee ODMHSAS’s contracts and payments and review the department’s budget monthly. The bill, HB 2785, by Rep. Trey Caldwell (R-Faxon) and Sen. Chuck Hall (R-Perry), was vetoed by the governor, but lawmakers overrode his veto.

Other mental health-related appropriations include:  

• HB 2777, which sends about $20 million from the Opioid Lawsuit Settlement Fund to the Oklahoma Opioid Abatement Revolving Fund  

• SB 1178, which re-appropriates $66.5 million that was initially part of funding for the construction of the new Donahue Behavioral Health Hospital in Oklahoma City. This money will instead be put toward purchasing and renovating an existing facility. The bill also sends nearly $8 million to the new behavioral health hospital in downtown Tulsa that will replace the Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health.

Concerns about the department’s budget and management led lawmakers to remove Friesen from her position through a concurrent resolution, SCR 12. Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Rear Admiral Gregory Slavonic as interim mental health commissioner; a permanent commissioner will be named in the coming months and must be approved by the Senate.

Competency lawsuit and consent decree

This session, lawmakers also approved a consent decree, a legal settlement that works as an accountability plan, to resolve a lawsuit against ODMHSAS over long wait times for competency evaluation and restoration services.  

Lawmakers appropriated nearly $9.5 million to go towards fines and fees while participating in the consent decree this first year via SB 1140.

Another bill, SB 1089, removes from consideration any amount of time a defendant refuses medication for competency restoration in the calculation for a “reasonable time period” for restoration services. The bill also outlines a timeline and reporting requirements for competency restoration proceedings. SB 1089, by Sen. Rosino and Rep. Mark Lawson (R-Sapulpa), was vetoed by the governor, but lawmakers overrode his veto.  

Other key mental health bills

• A bell-to-bell cellphone ban for schools: Motivated in part by youth mental health concerns, lawmakers voted to curb youth cellphone use in schools, passing SB 139 by Ally Seifried (R-Claremore) and Rep. Chad Caldwell (R-Enid). The bill requires districts to prohibit students from using cellphones and other personal electronic devices for the entire school day for the 2025-26 school year. Districts can then choose to adopt those policies permanently in future years.

• Community health worker certification: SB 424, by Sen. Christi Gillespie (R-Broken Arrow) and Rep. Ellyn Hefner (D-OKC), establishes a voluntary certificate program for community health workers, frontline public health workers who serve as liaisons between community members and health and social services providers. Community health workers play a critical role in helping people navigate the behavioral health system.  

• Opioid abatement funding: SB 574, by Sen. John Haste (R-Wagoner) and Rep. Cynthia Roe (R-Lindsay), allows the Office of the Attorney General to use up to 10% of funds in the Opioid Abatement Revolving Fund for statewide projects, opening the door for universities and other agencies to apply for these dollars. The next round of grantees will be selected by the end of this summer.  

“Dormant” bills that could be revived next session

Bills that came up short this session — specifically those that didn’t make certain deadlines but were not voted down — could be considered by legislators in 2026. A few bills we expect to see return next year include:  

• HB 2012 by Rep. Daniel Pae (R-Lawton) and Sen. Gollihare would have removed the expiration date on Oklahoma’s law that authorizes harm reduction organizations in Oklahoma. Without legislative action, the law will expire or “sunset” in 2026.  

• SB 670 by Sen. Julia Kirt (D-OKC) and Rep. Josh West would have required physicians to receive continuing education on integrated behavioral health care and administer mental health screenings at each routine patient visit.

• HB 1687 by Rep. Roe and Sen. Rosino would have adopted the Uniform Health Care Decisions Act. By adopting standard language in the act, a mental health advanced directive in Oklahoma would also be valid in other states that adopt the same language.

• HB 2137 by Rep. Stinson and Sen. Adam Pugh (R-Edmond) would have outlined forced medication guidelines for people undergoing competency restoration.

• HB 2144 by Rep. Kannady (R-OKC) and Sen. Darrell Weaver (R-Moore) would have established the Insurance Consumers Protection Act, allowing people to sue insurers when they act in bad faith and lead to damage or injury.