221.1 - MENTAL HEALTH COMPACT ENACTED.
221.1 MENTAL HEALTH COMPACT ENACTED.
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, and the contracting
states solemnly agree that:
1. 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.
2. 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, on 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 the
person's 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 the person and the
person's 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.
3. 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, 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. 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 the interstate patient would be taken if the
interstate patient 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 such dangerous or
potentially dangerous patient, the patient shall be detained in the
state where found pending disposition in accordance with law.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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 the guardian's own
behalf or in respect of any patient for whom the 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; 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 the
guardian's 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.
9. 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 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.
10. Article X.
a. Each party state shall appoint a "compact administrator"
who, on behalf of the compact administrator's state, shall act as
general coordinator of activities under the compact in the
administrator's state and who shall receive copies of all reports,
correspondence, and other documents relating to any patient processed
under the compact by the administrator's 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 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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,
paragraph "b", as to costs or from any supplementary agreement
made pursuant to article XI shall be in accordance with the terms of
such agreement.
14. 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. Section History: Early Form
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, § 218A.1] Section History: Recent Form
C93, § 221.1
2008 Acts, ch 1032, § 201