Interstate Compact on Mental Health

Article I

Article II

(1) “Aftercare” means care, treatment and services provided a patient, as defined herein, on convalescent status or conditional release;

(2) “Institution” means 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;

(3) “Mental deficiency” means mental deficiency as defined by appropriate clinical authorities to such extent that a person so afflicted is incapable of managing such persons and such persons affairs, but does not include mental illness as defined herein;

(4) “Mental illness” means mental disease to such extent that a person so afflicted requires care and treatment for that person's own welfare, or the welfare of others, or of the community;

(5) “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 the provisions of this compact;

(6) “Receiving state” means 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;

(7) “Sending state” means 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; and

(8) “State” means 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, such person shall be eligible for care and treatment in an institution in that state irrespective of such 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 the 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 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 such 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 such interstate patient would be taken if such 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.

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 such aftercare 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 thereby, and if the public safety would not be jeopardized thereby, 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

Article VI

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 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.

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 that 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, 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 patient 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) “Guardian” as used in paragraph (a) of this article includes 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, such 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.

Article X

(a) Each party state shall appoint a “compact administrator” who, on behalf of party state, shall act as general coordinator of activities under the compact in party state and who shall receive copies of all reports, correspondence, and other documents relating to any patient processed under the compact by party state, either in the capacity of sending or receiving state. The compact administrator or party 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 have the power to promulgate reasonable rules and regulations to carry out more effectively the terms and provisions of this compact.

Article XI

Article XII

Article XIII

(a) A state party to this compact may withdraw therefrom by enacting a statute repealing the same. Such withdrawals 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 such state or sent out of such 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 such agreement.

Article XIV