Art. 1404. Definitions

As used in this Title:

(1) "Caretaker" means any person legally obligated to provide or secure adequate care for a child, including a parent, tutor, guardian, legal custodian, foster home parent, or other person providing a residence for the child.

(2) "Conditional discharge" means the physical release of a judicially committed minor from a treatment facility by the director or by the court.

(3) "Dangerous to others" means the condition of a person whose behavior or significant threats support a reasonable expectation that there is a substantial risk that he will inflict physical harm upon another person in the near future.

(4) "Dangerous to self" means the condition of a person whose behavior, significant threats, or inaction supports a reasonable expectation that there is a substantial risk that he will inflict physical or severe emotional harm upon his own person.

(5) "Department" means the Louisiana Department of Health.

(6) "Diagnosis" means the art and science of determining the presence of disease in an individual and distinguishing one disease from another.

(7) "Director" or "superintendent" means a person in charge of a treatment facility or his deputy.

(8) "Discharge" means the full or conditional release from a treatment facility of any minor admitted or otherwise detained under this Title.

(9) "Family psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner" means an individual who maintains the credentials as such and meets the requirements of a "psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner" as provided in R.S. 28:2. Further, a family psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner shall have been engaged in clinical practice for not less than three years.

(10) "Formal voluntary admission" means the admission of a minor suffering from mental illness or substance abuse desiring admission to a treatment facility for diagnosis or treatment of such condition, or both, who may be formally admitted upon his written request.

(11) "Grave disability" means the condition of a person who is unable to provide for his own basic physical needs, such as essential food, clothing, medical care, and shelter, as a result of serious mental illness or substance abuse and is unable to survive safely in freedom or protect himself from serious harm; the term also includes incapacitation by alcohol, which means the condition of a person who, as a result of the use of alcohol, is unconscious or whose judgment is otherwise so impaired that he is incapable of realizing and making a rational decision with respect to his need for treatment.

(12) "Informal voluntary admission" means the admission of a minor suffering from mental illness or substance abuse, desiring admission to a treatment facility for diagnosis or treatment of such condition, or both, who may be admitted upon his request without making formal application.

(13) "MHAS" means Mental Health Advocacy Service, as established by R.S. 28:64.

(14) "Major surgical procedure" means an invasive procedure of a serious nature with incision upon the body or parts thereof under general, local, or spinal anesthesia, utilizing surgical instruments, for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment of a medical condition. Diagnostic procedures, including but not limited to the following, shall not be considered as major surgical procedures:

(a) Endoscopy through natural body openings, such as the mouth, anus, or urethra, to view the trachea, bronchi, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, small or large intestine, urethra, urinary bladder, or ureters, and to obtain from such organs specimens of fluids or tissues for chemical or microscopic analysis.

(b) Subcutaneous percutaneous liver biopsy.

(c) Punch biopsy of skeletal muscles.

(d) Bone marrow biopsy.

(e) Lumbar puncture.

(f) Myelogram.

(g) Abdominocentesis.

(h) Conization of the uterine cervix.

(i) Renal angiography.

(j) Femoral angiography.

(k) Carotid angiography.

(l) Vertebral angiography.

(15) "Mental Health Advocacy Service" means a service established by the state of Louisiana for the purpose of providing legal counsel and representation for persons with mental disabilities and for children and to ensure that their legal rights are protected.

(16) "Patient" means any person detained and taken care of as a person with mental illness or person suffering from substance abuse.

(17) "Person with mental illness" means any person with a psychiatric disorder which has substantial adverse effects on his ability to function and who requires care and treatment. It does not include a person with, solely, an intellectual disability, or who suffers solely from epilepsy, alcoholism, or drug abuse.

(18) "Psychologist" means an individual licensed to practice psychology in Louisiana in accordance with R.S. 37:2351 et seq., or licensed to practice medical psychology in Louisiana in accordance with R.S. 37:1360.51 et seq., and who has been engaged in the practice of a clinical specialty for not less than three years.

(19) "Respondent" means a person alleged to be mentally ill or suffering from substance abuse and for whom an application for commitment to a treatment facility has been filed.

(20) "Restraint" means the partial or total immobilization of any or all of the extremities or the torso by mechanical means for psychiatric indications. Restraint does not include the use of mechanisms usually and customarily used during medical or surgical procedures, including but not limited to body immobilization during surgery and arm immobilization during intravenous administration. Restraint does not include orthopedic appliances used to posturally support the patient, such as posies.

(21) "Seclusion" means the involuntary confinement of a patient alone in a room, which the patient is physically prevented from leaving, for any period of time, except that seclusion does not include the placement of a patient alone in a room or other area for no more than thirty minutes at a time and no more than three hours in any twenty-four hour time period pursuant to behavior-shaping techniques such as "time-out".

(22) "Substance abuse" means the condition of a person who uses narcotic, stimulant, depressant, soporific, tranquilizing, or hallucinogenic drugs or alcohol to the extent that it renders the person dangerous to himself or others or renders the person gravely disabled.

(23) "Treatment" means an active effort to accomplish an improvement in the mental condition or behavior of a patient or to prevent deterioration in his condition or behavior. Treatment includes but is not limited to hospitalization, partial hospitalization, outpatient services, examination, diagnosis, training, the use of pharmaceutical, and other services provided for patients by a treatment facility.

(24) "Treatment facility" means any public or private hospital, retreat, institution, mental health center, or facility licensed by the state of Louisiana in which any mentally ill minor or minor suffering from substance abuse is received or detained as a patient except a facility under the control or supervision of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections unless otherwise provided in Title VIII of this Code.

Acts 1991, No. 235, §14, eff. Jan. 1, 1992; Acts 1995, No. 1287, §2, eff. June 29, 1995; Acts 2006, No. 271, §1; Acts 2012, No. 489, §; Acts 2014, No. 811, §33, eff. June 23, 2014; Acts 2017, No. 369, §6.