2011 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 32A: Children's Code
Article 6A: Children's Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Act, 32A-6A-1 through 32A-6A-30
Section 32A-6A-4: Definitions.

32A-6A-4. Definitions.

As used in the Children's Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Act:

A. "aversive intervention" means any device or intervention, consequences or procedure intended to cause pain or unpleasant sensations, including interventions causing physical pain, tissue damage, physical illness or injury; electric shock; isolation; forced exercise; withholding of food, water or sleep; humiliation; water mist; noxious taste, smell or skin agents; and over-correction;

B. "behavioral health services" means a comprehensive array of professional and ancillary services for the treatment, habilitation, prevention and identification of mental illnesses, behavioral symptoms associated with developmental disabilities, substance abuse disorders and trauma spectrum disorders;

C. "capacity" means a child's ability to:

(1) understand and appreciate the nature and consequences of proposed health care, including its significant benefits, risks and alternatives to proposed health care; and

(2) make and communicate an informed health care decision;

D. "chemical restraint" means a medication that is not standard treatment for the patient's medical or psychiatric condition that is used to control behavior or to restrict a patient's freedom of movement;

E. "child" means a person who is a minor;

F. "clinician" means a person whose licensure allows the person to make independent clinical decisions, including a physician, licensed psychologist, psychiatric nurse practitioner, licensed independent social worker, licensed marriage and family therapist and licensed professional clinical counselor;

G. "continuum of services" means a comprehensive array of emergency, outpatient, intermediate and inpatient services and care, including screening, early identification, diagnostic evaluation, medical, psychiatric, psychological and social service care, habilitation, education, training, vocational rehabilitation and career counseling;

H. "developmental disability" means a severe chronic disability that:

(1) is attributable to a mental or physical impairment or a combination of mental or physical impairments;

(2) is manifested before a person reaches twenty-two years of age;

(3) is expected to continue indefinitely;

(4) results in substantial functional limitations in three or more of the following areas of major life activities:

(a) self-care;

(b) receptive and expressive language;

(c) learning;

(d) mobility;

(e) self-direction;

(f) capacity for independent living; or

(g) economic self-sufficiency; and

(5) reflects a person's need for a combination and sequence of special, interdisciplinary or other supports and services that are of lifelong or extended duration that are individually planned or coordinated;

I. "evaluation facility" means a community mental health or developmental disability program, a medical facility having psychiatric or developmental disability services available or, if none of the foregoing is reasonably available or appropriate, the office of a licensed physician or a licensed psychologist, any of which shall be capable of performing a mental status examination adequate to determine the need for appropriate treatment, including possible involuntary treatment;

J. "family" means persons with a kinship relationship to a child, including the relationship that exists between a child and a biological or adoptive parent, relative of the child, a step-parent, a godparent, a member of the child's tribe or clan or an adult with whom the child has a significant bond;

K. "habilitation" means services, including behavioral health services based on evaluation of the child, that are aimed at assisting the child to prevent, correct or ameliorate a developmental disability. The purpose of habilitation is to enable the child to attain, maintain or regain maximum functioning or independence. "Habilitation" includes programs of formal, structured education and treatment and rehabilitation services;

L. "individual instruction" means a child's direction concerning a mental health treatment decision for the child, made while the child has capacity and is fourteen years of age or older, which is to be implemented when the child has been determined to lack capacity;

M. "least restrictive means principle" means the conditions of habilitation or treatment for the child, separately and in combination that:

(1) are no more harsh, hazardous or intrusive than necessary to achieve acceptable treatment objectives for the child;

(2) involve no restrictions on physical movement and no requirement for residential care, except as reasonably necessary for the administration of treatment or for the protection of the child or others from physical injury; and

(3) are conducted at the suitable available facility closest to the child's place of residence;

N. "legal custodian" means a biological or adoptive parent of a child unless legal custody has been vested in a person, department or agency and also includes a person appointed by an unexpired power of attorney;

O. "licensed psychologist" means a person who holds a current license as a psychologist issued by the New Mexico state board of psychologist examiners;

P. "likelihood of serious harm to self" means that it is more likely than not that in the near future a child will attempt to commit suicide or will cause serious bodily harm to the child by violent or other self-destructive means, as evidenced by behavior causing, attempting or threatening such harm, which behavior gives rise to a reasonable fear of such harm from the child;

Q. "likelihood of serious harm to others" means that it is more likely than not that in the near future the child will inflict serious bodily harm on another person or commit a criminal sexual offense, as evidenced by behavior causing, attempting or threatening such harm, which behavior gives rise to a reasonable fear of such harm from the child;

R. "mechanical restraint" means any device or material attached or adjacent to the child's body that restricts freedom of movement or normal access to any portion of the child's body and that the child cannot easily remove but does not include mechanical supports or protective devices;

S. "mechanical support" means a device used to achieve proper body position, designed by a physical therapist and approved by a physician or designed by an occupational therapist, such as braces, standers or gait belts, but not including protective devices;

T. "medically necessary services" means clinical and rehabilitative physical, mental or behavioral health services that are:

(1) essential to prevent, diagnose or treat medical conditions or are essential to enable the child to attain, maintain or regain functional capacity;

(2) delivered in the amount, duration, scope and setting that is clinically appropriate to the specific physical, mental and behavioral health care needs of the child;

(3) provided within professionally accepted standards of practice and national guidelines; and

(4) required to meet the physical, mental and behavioral health needs of the child and are not primarily for the convenience of the child, provider or payer;

U. "mental disorder" means a substantial disorder of the child's emotional processes, thought or cognition, not including a developmental disability, that impairs the child's:

(1) functional ability to act in developmentally and age-appropriate ways in any life domain;

(2) judgment;

(3) behavior; and

(4) capacity to recognize reality;

V. "mental health or developmental disabilities professional" means a person who by training or experience is qualified to work with persons with mental disorders or developmental disabilities;

W. "out-of-home treatment or habilitation program" means an out-of-home residential program that provides twenty-four-hour care and supervision to children with the primary purpose of providing treatment or habilitation to children. "Out-of-home treatment or habilitation program" includes, but is not limited to, treatment foster care, group homes, psychiatric hospitals, psychiatric residential treatment facilities and non-medical and community-based residential treatment centers;

X. "parent" means a biological or adoptive parent of a child whose parental rights have not been terminated;

Y. "physical restraint" means the use of physical force without the use of any device or material that restricts the free movement of all or a portion of a child's body;

Z. "protective devices" means helmets, safety goggles or glasses, guards, mitts, gloves, pads and other common safety devices that are normally used or recommended for use by persons without disabilities while engaged in a sport or occupation or during transportation;

AA. "residential treatment or habilitation program" means diagnosis, evaluation, care, treatment or habilitation rendered inside or on the premises of a mental health or developmental disabilities facility, hospital, clinic, institution, supervisory residence or nursing home when the child resides on the premises and where one or more of the following measures is available for use:

(1) a mechanical device to restrain or restrict the child's movement;

(2) a secure seclusion area from which the child is unable to exit voluntarily;

(3) a facility or program designed for the purpose of restricting the child's ability to exit voluntarily; and

(4) the involuntary emergency administration of psychotropic medication;

BB. "restraint" means the use of a physical, chemical or mechanical restraint;

CC. "seclusion" means the confinement of a child alone in a room from which the child is physically prevented from leaving;

DD. "treatment" means provision of behavioral health services based on evaluation of the child, aimed at assisting the child to prevent, correct or ameliorate a mental disorder. The purpose of treatment is to enable the child to attain, maintain or regain maximum functioning;

EE. "treatment team" means a team consisting of the child, the child's parents unless parental rights have specifically been limited pursuant to an order of a court, legal custodian, guardian ad litem, treatment guardian, clinician and any other professionals involved in treatment of the child, other members of the child's family, if requested by the child, and the child's attorney if requested by the child, unless in the professional judgment of the treating clinician for reasons of safety or therapy one or more members should be excluded from participation in the treatment team; and

FF. "treatment plan" means an individualized plan developed by a treatment team based on assessed strengths and needs of the child and family.