110 CMR 11.16 - Commitment to a Mental Health Facility
(1)
Definition.
Mental health facility means a public or private facility for the inpatient care or treatment or diagnosis or evaluation of mentally ill or mentally retarded persons, except for the Bridgewater State Hospital. See M.G.L. c. 123, § 1. Community residential care facilities for children (as defined at 110 CMR 7.120) are not mental health facilities for purposes of 110 CMR 11.00.
(2)
Consent by Child if 16 Years
of Age or Older. Any child who has attained 16 years of age may
apply for voluntary admission to a mental health facility. In the case of such
an application by the child, no additional consent either from the Department
or from parents is necessary. See M.G.L. c. 123, §
10(a).
(3)
Consent by
Parent. A parent may consent to the admission of their child to a
mental health facility when:
(a) the child is
in the care of the Department and is under 16 years of age; or
(b) the child is in the care of the
Department and is between 16 and 18 years of age and does not consent to
admission to a mental health facility.
(4)
Consent by Department Area or
Regional Director. The Department (by an Area or Regional Director
only) may consent to the admission of a person:
(a)
custody: in the
custody of the Department
(b)
care: in the care of the Department if that person's
parent(s) is unavailable for consultation or if that person's parent(s) after
consultation consent or authorize the Department to consent; but the Department
may not consent to the admission of a person in the care of the Department if
that person's parent(s) after consultation refuse to consent or refuse to
authorize the Department to consent
(c)
ward: who is a
ward of the Department only if the Department as guardian has the specific
power to consent to the admission of the ward to a mental health facility for
an initial period of time not to exceed a maximum of 90 days.
(5)
Judicial Review
after 90 Days. In any case where the Department has consented to
the admission of a person to a mental health facility, the Department shall
seek judicial review before it consents to an extension of the admission of
such person to a mental health facility beyond a period of 90 days.
(6)
Antipsychotic
Drugs. The determination of who may consent to the administration
of antipsychotic drugs to a child shall be made according to
110 CMR
11.14.
Notes
State regulations are updated quarterly; we currently have two versions available. Below is a comparison between our most recent version and the prior quarterly release. More comparison features will be added as we have more versions to compare.
No prior version found.