Reference is to the bill as introduced.
Amend the bill, as and if amended, by striking all after the enacting words and inserting:
/ SECTION 1. Section 44-23-10 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 47 of 2011, is amended to read:
"Section 44-23-10.
When used in this chapter, Chapter 9, Chapter 11, Chapter
13, Articles 3, 5, 7, and 9 of Chapter 17, Chapter 24, Chapter
27, Chapter 48, and Chapter 52, unless the context clearly
indicates a different meaning:
(1) 'Attending
physician' means the staff physician charged with primary
responsibility for the treatment of a patient.
(2) 'Conservator'
means a person who legally has the care and management of the
estate of one who is incapable of managing his own estate,
whether or not he has been declared legally incompetent.
(3) 'Department' means
the South Carolina Department of Mental Health.
(4) 'Designated
examiner' means a physician licensed by the Board of Medical
Examiners of this State or a person registered by the department
as specially qualified, under standards established by the
department, in the diagnosis of mental or related illnesses.
(5) 'Director' means
the director of the South Carolina Department of Mental
Health.
(6) 'Discharge' means
an absolute release or dismissal from an institution or a
hospital.
(7) 'Gravely
disabled' means a person who, due to mental illness,
lacks sufficient insight or capacity to make responsible
decisions with respect to his treatment and because of this
condition is likely to cause harm to himself through neglect,
inability to care for himself, personal injury, or
otherwise.
(8)
'Guardian' or 'legal guardian' means a person who legally
has the care and management of the person of one who is not sui
juris.
(8)(9)
'Hospital' means a public or private hospital.
(9)(10)
'Interested person' means a parent, guardian,
spouse, adult next of kin, or nearest friend.
(10)(11)
'Leave of absence' means a qualified release from
an institution or a hospital.
(11)(12)
'Licensed physician' means an individual licensed
under the laws of this State to practice medicine or a medical
officer of the government of the United States while in this
State in the performance of official duties.
(12)(13)
'Likelihood of serious harm' means because of
mental illness there is:
(a)
a substantial risk of physical harm to the person himself
as manifested by evidence of threats of, or attempts at, suicide
or serious bodily harm;
(b)
a substantial risk of physical harm to other persons as
manifested by evidence of homicidal or other violent behavior
and serious harm to them; or
(c)
a very substantial risk of physical impairment or injury
to the person himself as manifested by evidence that the
person's person is gravely disabled and
that reasonable provision for the person's protection is not
available in the community.
(13)(14)
'Mental health clinic' means an institution, or
part of an institution, maintained by the department for the
treatment and care on an outpatient basis.
(14)(15)
'Nearest friend' means any responsible person who,
in the absence of a parent, guardian, or spouse, undertakes to
act for and on behalf of another individual who is incapable of
acting for himself for that individual's benefit, whether or not
the individual for whose benefit he acts is under legal
disability.
(15)(16)
'Nonresident licensed physician' means an
individual licensed under the laws of another state to practice
medicine or a medical officer of the government of the United
States while performing official duties in that state.
(16)(17)
'Observation' means diagnostic evaluation, medical,
psychiatric and psychological examination, and care of a person
for the purpose of determining his mental condition.
(17)(18)
'Officer of the peace' means any state, county, or
city police officer, officer of the State Highway Patrol,
sheriff, or deputy sheriff.
(18)(19)
'Parent' means natural parent, adoptive parent,
stepparent, or person with legal custody.
(19)(20)
'Patient' means a person who seeks hospitalization
or treatment under the provisions of this chapter, Chapter 9,
Chapter 11, Chapter 13, Article 1 of Chapter 15, Chapter 17,
Chapter 27, Chapter 48, and Chapter 52 or any person for whom
such hospitalization or treatment is sought.
(20) (21)
'Person with a mental illness' means a person with
a mental disease to such an extent that, for the person's own
welfare or the welfare of others or of the community, the person
requires care, treatment, or hospitalization.
(21)(22)
'Person with intellectual disability' means a
person, other than a person with a mental illness primarily in
need of mental health services, whose inadequately developed or
impaired intelligence and adaptive level of behavior require for
the person's benefit, or that of the public, special training,
education, supervision, treatment, care, or control in the
person's home or community or in a service facility or program
under the control and management of the Department of
Disabilities and Special Needs.
(22)(23) 'State
hospital' means a hospital, or part of a hospital, equipped to
provide inpatient care and treatment and maintained by the
department.
(23)(24) 'State
mental health facility' or 'facility' means any hospital,
clinic, or other institution maintained by the department.
(24)(25)
'State of citizenship' means the last state in
which a person resided for one or more consecutive years,
exclusive of time spent in public or private hospitals and penal
institutions or on parole or unauthorized absence from such
hospitals and institutions and of time spent in service in any
of the Armed Forces of the United States; the residence of a
person must be determined by the actual physical presence, not
by the expressed intent of the person.
(25)(26)
'Treatment' means the broad range of emergency,
outpatient, intermediate, and inpatient services and care that
may be extended to a patient, including diagnostic evaluation
and medical, psychiatric, psychological, and social service care
and vocational rehabilitation and counseling."
SECTION 2. Section 44-17-410(1) of the 1976 Code is amended to read:
"(1) written
affidavit under oath by a person stating:
(a)
a belief that the person is mentally ill as defined in
Section 44-23-10 and because of this condition is likely to
cause serious harm to himself or others as defined in Section
44-23-10, if not immediately hospitalized;
(b)
the specific type of serious harm thought probable if the
person is not immediately hospitalized and the factual basis for
this belief;"
SECTION 3. Section 44-17-440 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:
"Section 44-17-440.
(A) The certificate required by
Section 44-17-410, emergency admission, must authorize
and require a state or local law enforcement officer, preferably
in civilian clothes and preferably with crisis intervention
training, to take into custody and transport the person to
the hospital designated by the certification. No person may be
taken into custody after the expiration of three days from the
date of certification. A friend or relative may transport the
individual to the mental health facility designated in the
application or engage the services of an emergency medical
technician as defined by Section 44-61-310, if the friend or
relative has read and signed a statement on the certificate
which clearly states that it is the responsibility of a state or
local law enforcement officer to provide timely transportation
for the patient and that the friend or relative freely chooses
to assume that responsibility and liability. A friend or
relative who chooses to transport the patient is not entitled to
reimbursement from the State for the cost of the transportation.
An officer acting in accordance with this article is immune from
civil liability. Upon entering a written agreement between the
local law enforcement agency, the governing body of the local
government, and the directors of the community mental health
centers, an alternative transportation program utilizing peer
supporters and case managers may be arranged for nonviolent
persons requiring mental health treatment. The agreement clearly
must define the responsibilities of each party and the
requirements for program participation.
(B) For
transportation of an individual who is committed but not yet
admitted to a facility, who needs to be transported from a
mental health center or an emergency department of a hospital to
another facility for admission, the individual may be
transported by an emergency medical technician.
(C) For an individual
who has eloped after commitment, a request for an order to
search, locate, and return must be issued by the probate court
and transportation must be by a state or local law enforcement
officer."
SECTION 4. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor. /
Renumber sections to conform.
Amend title to conform.