2016 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 44 - Health
CHAPTER 26 - RIGHTS OF CLIENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY
Section 44-26-100. General rights of clients; limitations on rights.

(A) Except to the extent an interdisciplinary team of a residential program determines that it is required by the medical needs, safety, or habilitative goals of the client to impose restrictions, a client may:

(1) communicate by sealed mail, telephone, or otherwise with persons, including official agencies, inside or outside the institution. Reasonable access to writing materials, stamps, envelopes, and telephones, including reasonable funds or means by which to use telephones, must be provided;

(2) receive visitors. A facility must have a designated area where clients and visitors may speak privately;

(3) wear his clothes, have access to personal hygiene articles, keep and spend a reasonable sum of his money, and keep and use his personal possessions, including articles for personal grooming not provided for by the facility unless the clothes or personal possessions are determined by an intellectual disability professional or physician to be dangerous or otherwise inappropriate to the habilitation regimen. If clothing is provided by the facility, clients must have the opportunity to select from neat, clean, seasonal clothing that allows the client to appear normal in the community. The clothing must be considered to be the client's throughout his stay in the facility;

(4) have access to individual storage space for private use. Personal property of a client brought into the facility and placed in storage by the facility must be inventoried. Receipts must be given to the client and at least one other interested person. The personal property may be reclaimed only by the client or his guardian as long as he is living unless otherwise ordered by the court;

(5) follow or abstain from religious practices. Religious practices may be prohibited by the facility supervisor if they lead to physical harm to the client or to others, harassment of other clients, or damage to property.

(B) The department shall determine what constitutes reasonable access for the rights provided in this section. Limitations imposed on the exercise of the rights by the client and the reasons for the limitations must be made part of the client's record. The limitations are valid for no more than thirty days. The time may be extended an additional thirty days if, upon review, it is determined the client's safety or habilitation warrants limitations of the rights. If the department restricts rights, the reasons for the restriction and why the condition cannot be resolved in a less restrictive manner must be recorded in the client's record.

HISTORY: 1992 Act No. 366, Section 1; 2011 Act No. 47, Section 6, eff June 7, 2011.

Editor's Note

2011 Act No. 47, Section 13, provides as follows:

"SECTION 13. In Sections 1 through 6 of this act, the terms 'intellectual disability' and 'person with intellectual disability' have replaced and have the same meanings as the former terms 'mental retardation' and 'mentally retarded'."

Effect of Amendment

The 2011 amendment substituted "an intellectual disability" for "a mental retardation" in subsection (A)(3).