State Rep. Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook, has been appointed House chairman of the commission to study difficult-to-place patients.

“I’m honored to have been appointed to chair this important commission,” Gattine said in a statement. “It is unconscionable that patients with chronic illness languish for days, weeks and even months in hospitals and other institutions because Maine has neglected to develop community resources that can meet their needs.

“We are failing some of our most seriously ill neighbors and placing a tremendous economic burden on Maine businesses and taxpayers. It is critical that we meet the challenge of serving people in the least restrictive setting,” he said in the statement.

The commission studies issues related to difficult-to-place patients with complex medical and mental health conditions and the feasibility of making changes to the long-term care system for those patients.

The commission was formed under a bill introduced this session, LD 155, which received unanimous support from the Health and Human Services Committee and the entire Legislature.

The commission consists of 13 members: two Maine state senators, three Maine state representatives, the commissioner of Health and Human Services or the commissioner’s designee, and seven individuals appointed by the governor.

Of the appointees, one must be the director of the long-term care ombudsman program and one each must represent a long-term care facility, a hospital, people with disabilities, a statewide organization advocating for people with mental illness, an organization promoting independent living for individuals with disabilities and an individual or a family member of an individual with a complex medical condition.

Gattine is House chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee. He is serving his second term in the Maine Legislature and represents part of Westbrook.

Rep. Drew Gattine