§ 12-28-2-1 — Enactment and text 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 1.
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 2.
As used in this compact, the following terms have the following
meanings:
(a) "Sending state" means a party state from which a patient is
transported pursuant to this compact or from which it is
contemplated that a patient may be so sent.
(b) "Receiving state" means a party state to which a patient is
transported pursuant to this compact or to which it is
contemplated that a patient may be so sent.
(c) "Institution" means any hospital or other facility maintained by
a party state or political subdivision of a party state for the care
and treatment of mental illness or mental deficiency.
(d) "Patient" means 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 this compact.
(e) "After-care" means care, treatment, and services provided a
patient, as defined in this compact, on convalescent status or
conditional release.
(f) "Mental illness" means mental disease to the extent that a
person so afflicted requires care and treatment for that person's
own welfare, the welfare of others, or the welfare of the
community.
(g) "Mental deficiency" means mental deficiency as defined by
appropriate clinical authorities to the extent that a person so
afflicted is incapable of managing the person's self and the
person's affairs. However, the term does not include mental illness
as defined in this compact.
(h) "State" means any state, territory, or possession of the United
States, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto
Rico.
(i) "Guardian" includes any guardian, trustee, legal committee,
conservator, or other person or agency however denominated who
is charged by law with the power to act for or exercise
responsibility for the person or property of a patient.
Article 3.
(a) Whenever a person physically present in any party state is in
need of institutionalization by reason of mental illness or mental
deficiency, the person shall be eligible for care and treatment in an
institution in that state irrespective of the person's residence,
settlement, or citizenship qualifications.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (a) of this article,
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 the patient would be facilitated
or improved by this transfer. Any such institutionalization may be for
the entire period of care and treatment or for any portion or portions of
the care and treatment of the patient. The factors referred to in this
paragraph shall include:
(1) the patient's full record with due regard for the location of the
patient's family;
(2) the character of the illness and probable duration thereof; and
(3) any other factors considered to be appropriate.
(c) No state shall be obliged to receive any patient pursuant to
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 agrees to accept the patient.
(d) If 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 any further transfer of the patient may be made as seems likely to
be in the best interest of the patient.
Article 4.
(a) Whenever, pursuant to the laws of the state in which a patient is
physically present, it is 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 the 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, and if the public safety
would not be jeopardized, 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 5.
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, the patient shall
be detained in the state where found pending disposition in accordance
with law.
Article 6.
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 7.
(a) No person shall be deemed a patient of more than one (1)
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 (2)
or more party states may, by making a specific agreement for that
purpose, arrange for a different allocation of costs as among
themselves.
(c) Nothing in this compact may 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 for the costs.
(d) Nothing in this compact may be construed to prevent any party
state or subdivision of a party state from asserting any right against any
person, agency, or other entity in regard to costs for which such party
state or subdivision may be responsible pursuant to this compact.
(e) Nothing in this compact may 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 those
agreements may be made.
Article 8.
Nothing in this compact may be construed to abridge, diminish, or
in any way impair the rights, duties, and responsibilities of any patient's
guardian on the guardian's own behalf or in respect of any patient for
whom a guardian 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. However, 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
the court or continue the guardian's power and responsibility,
whichever the court determines is 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 instead of making
a supplemental or substitute appointment.
Article 9.
(a) No provision of this compact except Article 5 shall apply to any
person institutionalized:
(1) while under sentence in a penal or correctional institution;
(2) while subject to trial on a criminal charge; or
(3) whose institutionalization is due to the commission of an
offense for which, in the absence of mental illness or mental
deficiency, the 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 lock-up, but the patient shall, with all expedition, be taken to a
suitable institutional facility for mental illness or mental deficiency.
Article 10.
(a) Each party state shall appoint a compact administrator who, on
behalf of the state, shall act as general coordinator of activities under
the compact in that state and who shall receive copies of all reports,
correspondence, and other documents relating to any patient processed
under the compact by that state either in the capacity of sending or
receiving state. The compact administrator or the administrator's duly
designated representative shall be the official with whom other party
states shall deal in any manner 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 11.
(a) The duly constituted administrative authorities of any two (2) 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.
(b) 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 12.
This compact shall enter into full force and effect as to any state
when enacted by the state into law and the state shall thereafter be a
party to the compact with any and all states legally joining in the
compact.
Article 13.
(a) A state party to this compact may withdraw from the compact by
enacting a statute repealing the compact. Such withdrawal shall take
effect one (1) year after notice of the withdrawal 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 that
state or sent out of that state pursuant to this compact.
(b) Withdrawal from any agreement permitted by Article 7(b) as to
costs or from any supplementary agreement made pursuant to Article
11 shall be in accordance with the terms of that agreement.
Article 14.
(a) This compact shall be liberally construed so as to effectuate the
purposes thereof.
(b) The provisions of this compact are 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.
(c) If this compact is held contrary to the constitution of any state
party to the compact, 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.
[Pre-1992 Revision Citation: 16-13-8-1.]

Legislative History

As added by P.L.2-1992, SEC.22.