2006 Code of Virginia § 16.1-336 - Definitions

16.1-336. Definitions.

When used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

"Consent" means the voluntary, express, and informed agreement to treatmentin a mental health facility by a minor fourteen years of age or older and bya parent or a legally authorized custodian.

"Inpatient treatment" means placement for observation, diagnosis, ortreatment of mental illness in a psychiatric hospital or in any other type ofmental health facility determined by the State Mental Health, MentalRetardation and Substance Abuse Services Board to be substantially similar toa psychiatric hospital with respect to restrictions on freedom andtherapeutic intrusiveness.

"Least restrictive alternative" means the treatment and conditions oftreatment which, separately and in combination, are no more intrusive orrestrictive of freedom than reasonably necessary to achieve a substantialtherapeutic benefit or to protect the minor or others from physical injury.

"Mental health facility" means a public or private facility for thetreatment of mental illness operated or licensed by the Department of MentalHealth, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services.

"Mental illness" means a substantial disorder of the minor's cognitive,volitional, or emotional processes that demonstrably and significantlyimpairs judgment or capacity to recognize reality or to control behavior."Mental illness" may include substance abuse, which is the use, withoutcompelling medical reason, of any substance which results in psychological orphysiological dependency as a function of continued use in such a manner asto induce mental, emotional, or physical impairment and cause sociallydysfunctional or socially disordering behavior. Mental retardation, headinjury, a learning disability, or a seizure disorder is not sufficient, initself, to justify a finding of mental illness within the meaning of thisarticle.

"Minor" means a person less than eighteen years of age.

"Parent" means (i) a biological or adoptive parent who has legal custody ofthe minor, including either parent if custody is shared under a joint decreeor agreement, (ii) a biological or adoptive parent with whom the minorregularly resides, (iii) a person judicially appointed as a legal guardian ofthe minor, or (iv) a person who exercises the rights and responsibilities oflegal custody by delegation from a biological or adoptive parent, uponprovisional adoption or otherwise by operation of law. The director of thelocal department of social services, or his designee, may stand as theminor's parent when the minor is in the legal custody of the local departmentof social services.

"Qualified evaluator" means a psychiatrist or a psychologist licensed inVirginia by either the Board of Medicine or the Board of Psychology who isskilled in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness in minors andfamiliar with the provisions of this article. If such psychiatrist orpsychologist is unavailable, any mental health professional (i) licensed inVirginia through the Department of Health Professions or (ii) employed by acommunity services board who is skilled in the diagnosis and treatment ofmental illness in minors and who is familiar with the provisions of thisarticle may serve as the qualified evaluator.

"Treatment" means any planned intervention intended to improve a minor'sfunctioning in those areas which show impairment as a result of mentalillness.

(1990, c. 975; 1991, c. 159.)