2005 Idaho Code - 66-1201 — ENACTMENT OF COMPACT

                                  TITLE  66
                        STATE CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS
                                  CHAPTER 12
                     INTERSTATE COMPACT ON MENTAL HEALTH
    66-1201.  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 in the form substantially as follows:
                     INTERSTATE COMPACT ON MENTAL HEALTH

    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, or 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, the state shall promptly notify all
appropriate authorities within and without the jurisdiction of the escapee 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 responsibilities 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 nonparty 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 provisions 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 patient 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 compact 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.