House Bill 613: Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Renaming Act (Last Update: 2/17/2010)

Every state government has a department that handles health and welfare of its citizens. Maryland does too. Most states call these departments simply "The Department of Health".

Not Maryland, however. Our health department bears the strange, almost humorous name"Department of Health and Mental Hygiene". Really. It's true. Take a look at their website.

"Mental Hygiene" is an archaic term from the mid 1800s. It roughly means "mental health". It seems odd that in 2010, one of our largest state agencies would carry this outdated phrase in its title. I would be that to most lay-people, this name might sound like a joke. It's time get rid of this relic of the past and rename it to the "Department of Health".

For this reason, I have introduced the House Bill 613: Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Renaming Act. This bill would simply change the name of the department while allowing them to continue to use their existing DHMH stationary and other office products until they are all used up to save printing costs. You can read the text of the bill by clicking here and a fiscal/policy analysis by clicking here.

Obviously this is not the most pressing issue in the world. And it's not something that will effect the daily lives of our citizens. It's just a minor bureaucratic fix. But it's a small matter of modernizing our state government whose time I think has come. And it cannot be done without legislation.

[UPDATE 2/17/2010]: I had a public bill hearing today for this bill. You can watch the video of that hearing by clicking here.

- Saqib