§335-1 - Enactment of compact.
§335-1 Enactment of compact. The
Interstate Compact on Mental Health is hereby enacted into law and entered into
by the State of Hawaii with all other states legally joining therein in the
form as follows:
The contracting states solemnly agree that:
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 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
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 oneself 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.
Article III
(a)Â 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)Â 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)Â 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)Â 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 local patient would be taken if the interstate patient were a local
patient.
(e)Â 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.
Article IV
(a)Â 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)Â 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)Â 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 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.
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)Â 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)Â 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)Â 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)Â 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)Â Nothing in this compact shall 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 such
agreements may be made.
Article VIII
(a)Â 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.
Article IX
(a)Â 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)Â 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.
Article X
(a) Each party state shall appoint a “compact
administrator” who, on behalf of the 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.Â
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)Â 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 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.
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.
Article XIII
(a)Â 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.Â
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)Â 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 such agreement.
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. [L 1967, c 114, §1; HRS §335-1; gen
ch 1993]