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210.520 Enactment of compact.
The interstate compact on mental health is hereby enacted into law and entered into
by this state with all other states legally joining therein as follows:
The contracting states solemnly agree that:
ARTICLE I
The party states find that the proper and expeditious treatment of the mentally ill and
mentally deficient can be facilitated by cooperative action, to the benefit of the
patients, their families, and society as a whole. Further, the party states find that the
necessity of and desirability for furnishing such care and treatment bears no primary
relation to the residence or citizenship of the patient but that, on the contrary, the
controlling factors of community safety and humanitarianism require that facilities
and services be made available for all who are in need of them. Consequently, it is
the purpose of this compact and of the party states to provide the necessary legal
basis for the institutionalization or other appropriate care and treatment of the
mentally ill and mentally deficient under a system that recognizes the paramount
importance of patient welfare and to establish the responsibilities of the party states
in terms of such welfare.
ARTICLE II
As used in this compact:
(a)
"Sending state" shall mean a party state from which a patient is transported
pursuant to the provisions of the compact or from which it is contemplated that a
patient may be so sent;
(b)
"Receiving state" shall mean a party state to which a patient is transported
pursuant to the provisions of the compact or to which it is contemplated that a
patient may be so sent;
(c)
"Institution" shall mean any hospital or other facility maintained by a party
state or political subdivision thereof for the care and treatment of mental illness or
mental deficiency;
(d)
"Patient" shall mean any person subject to or eligible as determined by the
laws of the sending state, for institutionalization or other care, treatment, or
supervision pursuant to the provisions of this compact;
(e)
"After-care" shall mean care, treatment and services provided a patient, as
defined herein, on convalescent status or conditional release;
(f)
"Mental illness" shall mean mental disease to such extent that a person so
afflicted requires care and treatment for his own welfare, or the welfare of others, or
of the community;
(g)
"Mental deficiency" shall mean mental deficiency as defined by appropriate
clinical authorities to such extent that a person so afflicted is incapable of managing
himself and his affairs, but shall not include mental illness as defined herein;
(h)
"State" shall mean any state, territory or possession of the United States, the
District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
ARTICLE III
(a)
Whenever a person physically present in any party state shall be in need of
institutionalization by reason of mental illness or mental deficiency, he shall be
eligible for care and treatment in an institution in that state irrespective of his
residence, settlement or citizenship qualifications.
(b)
The provisions of paragraph (a) of this article to the contrary notwithstanding,
any patient may be transferred to an institution in another state whenever there are
factors based upon clinical determinations indicating that the care and treatment of
said patient would be facilitated or improved thereby. Any such institutionalization
may be for the entire period of care and treatment or for any portion or portions
thereof. The factors referred to in this paragraph shall include the patient's full record
with due regard for the location of the patient's family, character of the illness and
probable duration thereof, and such other factors as shall be considered appropriate.
(c)
No state shall be obliged to receive any patient pursuant to the provisions of
paragraph (b) of this article unless the sending state has given advance notice of its
intention to send the patient; furnished all available medical and other pertinent
records concerning the patient; given the qualified medical or other appropriate
clinical authorities of the receiving state an opportunity to examine the patient if said
authorities so wish; and unless the receiving state shall agree to accept the patient.
(d)
In the event that the laws of the receiving state establish a system of priorities
for the admission of patients, an interstate patient under this compact shall receive
the same priority as a local patient and shall be taken in the same order and at the
same time that he would be taken if he were a local patient.
(e)
Pursuant to this compact, the determination as to the suitable place of
institutionalization for a patient may be reviewed at any time and such further
transfer of the patient may be made as seems likely to be in the best interest of the
patient.
ARTICLE IV
(a)
Whenever, pursuant to the laws of the state in which a patient is physically
present, it shall be determined that the patient should receive after-care or
supervision, such care or supervision may be provided in a receiving state. If the
medical or other appropriate clinical authorities having responsibility for the care and
treatment of the patient in the sending state shall have reason to believe that
after-care in another state would be in the best interest of the patient and would not
jeopardize the public safety, they shall request the appropriate authorities in the
receiving state to investigate the desirability of affording the patient such after-care
in said receiving state, and such investigation shall be made with all reasonable
speed. The request for investigation shall be accompanied by complete information
concerning the patient's intended place of residence and the identity of the person in
whose charge it is proposed to place the patient, the complete medical history of the
patient, and such other documents as may be pertinent.
(b)
If the medical or other appropriate clinical authorities having responsibility for
the care and treatment of the patient in the sending state and the appropriate
authorities in the receiving state find that the best interest of the patient would be
served thereby, and if the public safety would not be jeopardized thereby, the patient
may receive after-care or supervision in the receiving state.
(c)
In supervising, treating, or caring for a patient on after-care pursuant to the
terms of this article, a receiving state shall employ the same standards of visitation,
examination, care, and treatment that it employs for similar local patients.
ARTICLE V
Whenever a dangerous or potentially dangerous patient escapes from an institution
in any party state, that state shall promptly notify all appropriate authorities within
and without the jurisdiction of the escape in a manner reasonably calculated to
facilitate the speedy apprehension of the escapee. Immediately upon the
apprehension and identification of any such dangerous or potentially dangerous
patient, he shall be detained in the state where found pending disposition in
accordance with law.
ARTICLE VI
The duly accredited officers of any state party to this compact, upon the
establishment of their authority and the identity of the patient, shall be permitted to
transport any patient being moved pursuant to this compact through any and all
states party to this compact, without interference.
ARTICLE VII
(a)
No person shall be deemed a patient of more than one institution at any given
time. Completion of transfer of any patient to an institution in a receiving state shall
have the effect of making the person a patient of the institution in the receiving state.
(b)
The sending state shall pay all costs of and incidental to the transportation of
any patient pursuant to this compact, but any two or more party states may, by
making a specific agreement for that purpose, arrange for a different allocation of
costs as among themselves.
(c)
No provision of this compact shall be construed to alter or affect any internal
relationships, among the departments, agencies and officers of and in the
government of a party state, or between a party state and its subdivisions, as to the
payment of costs, or responsibility therefor.
(d)
Nothing in this compact shall be construed to prevent any party state or
subdivision thereof from asserting any right against any person, agency or other
entity in regard to costs for which such party state or subdivision thereof may be
responsible pursuant to any provision of this compact.
(e)
Nothing in this compact shall be construed to invalidate any reciprocal
agreement between a party state and a non-party state relating to institutionalization,
care or treatment of the mentally ill or mentally deficient, or any statutory authority
pursuant to which such agreements may be made.
ARTICLE VIII
(a)
Nothing in this compact shall be construed to abridge, diminish, or in any way
impair the rights, duties, and responsibilities of any patient's guardian on his own
behalf or in respect of any patient for whom he may serve, except that where the
transfer of any patient to another jurisdiction makes advisable the appointment of a
supplemental or substitute guardian, any court of competent jurisdiction in the
receiving state may make such supplemental or substitute appointment and the
court which appointed the previous guardian shall upon being duly advised of the
new appointment, and upon the satisfactory completion of such accounting and
other acts as such court may by law require, relieve the previous guardian of power
and responsibility to whatever extent shall be appropriate in the circumstances;
provided, however, that in the case of any patient having settlement in the sending
state, the court of competent jurisdiction in the sending state, shall have the sole
discretion to relieve a guardian appointed by it or continue his power and
responsibility, whichever it shall deem advisable. The court in the receiving state
may, in its discretion, confirm or reappoint the person or persons previously serving
as guardian in the sending state in lieu of making a supplemental or substitute
appointment.
(b)
The term "guardian" as used in paragraph (a) of this article shall include any
guardian, trustee, legal committee, conservator, or other person or agency however
denominated who is charged by law with power to act for or responsibility for the
person or property of a patient.
ARTICLE IX
(a)
No provision of this compact except Article V shall apply to any person
institutionalized while under sentence in a penal or correctional institution or while
subject to trial on a criminal charge, or whose institutionalization is due to the
commission of an offense for which in the absence of mental illness or mental
deficiency, said person would be subject to incarceration in a penal or correctional
institution.
(b)
To every extent possible, it shall be the policy of states party to this compact
that no patient shall be placed or detained in any prison, jail or lockup, but such
person shall, with all expedition, be taken to a suitable institutional facility for mental
illness or mental deficiency.
ARTICLE X
(a)
Each party state shall appoint a "compact administrator" who, on behalf of his
state, shall act as general coordinator of activities under the compact in his state and
who shall receive copies of all reports, correspondence, and other documents
relating to any patient processed under the compact by his state either in the
capacity of sending or receiving state. The compact administrator or his duly
designated representative shall be the official with whom other party states shall
deal in any matter relating to the compact or any patient processed thereunder.
(b)
The compact administrators of the respective party states shall have power to
promulgate reasonable rules and regulations to carry out more effectively the terms
and provisions of this compact.
ARTICLE XI
The duly constituted administrative authorities of any two or more party states may
enter into supplementary agreements for the provision of any service or facility or for
the maintenance of any institution on a joint or cooperative basis whenever the
states concerned shall find that such agreements will improve services, facilities, or
institutional care and treatment in the fields of mental illness or mental deficiency. No
such supplementary agreement shall be construed so as to relieve any party state of
any obligation which it otherwise would have under other provisions of this compact.
ARTICLE XII
This compact shall enter into full force and effect as to any state when enacted by it
into law and such state shall thereafter be a party thereto with any and all states
legally joining therein.
ARTICLE XIII
(a)
A state party to this compact may withdraw therefrom by enacting a statute
repealing the same. Such withdrawal shall take effect one year after notice thereof
has been communicated officially and in writing to the governors and administrators
of all other party states. However, the withdrawal of any state shall not change the
status of any patient who has been sent to said state or sent out of said state
pursuant to the provisions of the compact.
(b)
Withdrawal from any agreement permitted by Article VII (b) as to costs or
from any supplementary agreement made pursuant to Article XI shall be in
accordance with the terms of such agreement.
ARTICLE XIV
This compact shall be liberally construed so as to effectuate the purposes thereof.
The provisions of this compact shall be severable and if any phrase, clause,
sentence or provision of this compact is declared to be contrary to the constitution of
any party state or of the United States or the applicability thereof to any government,
agency, person or circumstance is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of this
compact and the applicability thereof to any government, agency, person or
circumstance shall not be affected thereby. If this compact shall be held contrary to
the constitution of any state party thereto, the compact shall remain in full force and
effect as to the remaining states and in full force and effect as to the state affected
as to all severable matters.
History: Created 1958, sec. 163, sec. 1.
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