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:
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 pu
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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:
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
(a) As used in this compact:
(i) "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;
(ii) "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;
(iii) "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;
(iv) "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;
(v) "Aftercare" shall mean care, treatment and
services provided a patient, as defined herein, on convalescent
status or conditional release;
(vi) "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;
(vii) "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;
(viii) "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 the patient would be facilitated or improved. Any
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 and 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 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 aftercare 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 aftercare 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 aftercare in the receiving
state, and an 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 any 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 aftercare or supervision in
the receiving state.
(c) In supervising, treating, or caring for a patient on
aftercare 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, 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
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
(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) 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.
(d) Nothing in this compact shall be construed to prevent
any party state or subdivision from asserting any right against
any person, agency or other entity in regard to costs for which
the party state or subdivision 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 the 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 a 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 the accounting and other acts as the 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 provision 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
the states party to this compact that no patient shall be placed
or detained in any prison, jail or lockup, but the 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.
(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 (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 agreements will improve
services, facilities, or institutional care and treatment in the
field of mental illness or mental deficiency. No 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 the state shall be a party
with any and all states legally joining.
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 (1) 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
the agreement.
Article XIV
This compact shall be liberally construed so as to effectuate
the purposes. 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 to any
government, agency, person or circumstance is held invalid, the
validity of the remainder of this compact and the applicability
to any government, agency, person or circumstance shall not be
affected. If this compact shall be held contrary to the
constitution of any state party, 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.