H 4074 Session 111 (1995-1996)
H 4074 General Bill, By J.T. McElveen, Cobb-Hunter, W.D. Keyserling, J.H. Neal and
T.F. Rogers
Similar(S 455)
A Bill to amend Title 44, Chapter 9, Code of Laws of South Carolina, 1976,
relating to the Department of Mental Health, so as to abolish the South
Carolina Mental Health Commission, to transfer the powers and duties of the
Commission to the Director of the Department of Mental Health and to revise
these powers and duties, and to provide that the director is to be appointed
by the Governor; to amend Sections 44-11-30, 44-11-60, 44-11-70, 44-11-80, and
44-11-110, all relating to various powers and duties of the South Carolina
Mental Health Commission, so as to transfer these powers and duties to the
director of the Department of Mental Health.
04/12/95 House Introduced and read first time HJ-40
04/12/95 House Referred to Committee on Judiciary HJ-41
A BILL
TO AMEND TITLE 44, CHAPTER 9, CODE OF LAWS OF
SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT
OF MENTAL HEALTH, SO AS TO ABOLISH THE SOUTH
CAROLINA MENTAL HEALTH COMMISSION, TO TRANSFER
THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE COMMISSION TO THE
DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH
AND TO REVISE THESE POWERS AND DUTIES, AND TO
PROVIDE THAT THE DIRECTOR IS TO BE APPOINTED BY
THE GOVERNOR; TO AMEND SECTIONS 44-11-30, 44-11-60,
44-11-70, 44-11-80, AND 44-11-110, ALL RELATING TO
VARIOUS POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE SOUTH
CAROLINA MENTAL HEALTH COMMISSION, SO AS TO
TRANSFER THESE POWERS AND DUTIES TO THE
DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South
Carolina:
SECTION 1. Title 44, Chapter 9 of the 1976 Code is amended
to read:
"CHAPTER 9
State Department of Mental Health
Section 44-9-10. There is hereby created the State
Department of Mental Health which shall have has
jurisdiction over all of the State's mental hospitals, clinics and
centers, joint State and community sponsored mental health clinics
and centers and facilities for the treatment and care of alcohol and
drug addicts, including the authority to name each facility
state operated mental health inpatient facilities and through
contractual relationships with mental health centers shall ensure that
the goals and mission of the State are honored and attained.
Section 44-9-20. All the powers and duties vested in
the South Carolina Mental Health Commission immediately prior to
March 26, 1964 are hereby transferred to and vested in the
Department of Mental Health. All records, files and other papers
belonging to the South Carolina Mental Health Commission shall e
continued as part of the records and files of the Department of
Mental Health.
Section 44-9-30. (A)(1) There is created the governing
board for the State Department of Mental Health known as the
South Carolina Mental Health known as the South Carolina Mental
Health Commission. The commission consists of seven members
appointed by the Governor, upon the advice and consent of the
Senate, as follows:
(a) one member from each of the six congressional districts;
(b) one member from the State at large.
(2) The members serve for terms of five years and until their
successors are appointed and quality. The terms of no more than
two members may expire in one year. The Governor may remove a
member pursuant to the provisions of Section 1-3-240. A vacancy
must be filled by the Governor for the unexpired portion of the
term.
(C) The commission shall determine policies and promulgate
regulations governing the operation of the department and the
employment of professional and staff personnel.
(D) The members shall receive the same subsistence, mileage,
and per diem provided by law for members of state boards,
committees, and commissions. The State Director of Mental
Health must be appointed by the Governor with the advice and
consent of the Senate and may be removed by the Governor in
accordance with Section 1-3-240.
Section 44-9-40. The Mental Health Commission shall
appoint and remove a State Director of Mental Health, who is the
chief executive of the State Department of Mental Health. Subject
to the supervision and control of the Mental Health Commission,
the state director shall administer the policies and regulations
established by the commission. The director must be a person
of proven executive and administrative ability with
appropriate requisite education and substantial
experience in and knowledge of the treatment the
field of mental illness treatment. The director must
appoint and remove all other offices and employees of the
Department of Mental Health, subject to the approval of the Mental
Health Commission.
Section 44-9-50. The Department of Mental Health
may be divided into such divisions as may be authorized by the
Director of Mental Health and approved by the commission. These
divisions may be headed by deputy commissioners, but any deputy
commissioner heading a medical division must be a medical doctor
duly licensed in South Carolina. One of the divisions shall be a
Division on Alcohol and Drug Addiction which shall have primary
responsibility in the State for treatment of alcohol and drug addicts.
One of the divisions shall be a Division for Long-Term Care which
shall have primary responsibility for care and treatment of elderly
persons who are mentally and physically handicapped to the extent
that their needs are not met in other facilities either public or
private.
Section 44-9-60. The Director of the Department of Mental
Health may appoint a superintendent of each hospital, with the
approval of the Mental Health Commission. Each
superintendent shall must be knowledgeable in the
treatment of the mentally ill and in hospital administration. The
superintendent of each institution under the jurisdiction of the
Department of Mental Health shall be is responsible
for the employment of all personnel at the institution, subject to the
approval of the director of the department. The director may serve
as superintendent of one or more hospitals or other mental health
facilities.
Section 44-9-70. The State Department of Mental Health is
hereby designated as the state's mental health authority for
purposes of administering federal funds allotted to South Carolina
under the provisions of the National Mental Health Act, as
amended. The State Department of Mental Health is further
designated as the state agency authorized to administer minimum
standards and requirements for mental health clinics as conditions
for participation in federal-state grants-in-aid under the
provisions of the National Mental Health Act, as amended, and
is authorized to promote and develop community mental health
outpatient clinics. Provided, that However, nothing
in this article shall chapter may be construed to
prohibit the operation of outpatient mental health clinics by the
South Carolina Medical College Hospital in Charleston.
Provided, further, that, and nothing herein shall
in this chapter may be construed to include any of the
functions or responsibilities now granted the Department of Health
and Environmental Control, or the administration of the
State Hospital Construction Act (Hill-Burton Act), as provided
in the 1976 Code of Laws and amendments thereto.
Section 44-9-80. Payments made to a mental health facility
which are derived in whole or in part from federal funds which
become available after June 30, 1967, and which are provided with
the stipulation that they be used to improve services to patients
shall must not be considered fees from paying
patients under the terms of Act No. 1100 of 1964 but may
be utilized by the State Department of Mental Health to improve
South Carolina's comprehensive mental health program.
Section 44-9-90. The Commission Director of the
Department of Mental Health shall have the following
rights, powers and duties:
(1) It shall form a body corporate in deed and in law with all
the powers incident to corporations;
(2) It shall cooperate with persons in charge of penal institutions
in this State for the purpose of providing proper care and treatment
for mental patients confined therein because of emergency;
(3) It shall inaugurate and maintain an appropriate mental health
education and public relations program;
(4) It shall collect statistics bearing on mental illness, mental
deficiency, epilepsy, drug addiction and alcoholism, as well as study
the cause, pathology and prevention of mental defects and diseases;
(5) It shall provide moral and vocational training and medical
and surgical treatment which will tend to the mental and physical
betterment of patients and which is designed to lessen the increase
of mental illness, mental defectiveness, epilepsy., drug addiction
and alcoholism; and
(6) It shall encourage the superintendents of institutions and
their medical staffs in the investigation and study of these subjects
and of mental hygiene in general.
(7) It shall provide a statewide system for the delivery of mental
health services to treat, care for, reduce and prevent mental illness
and provide mental health services in the areas of mental
defectiveness, epilepsy, drug addiction and alcoholism for citizens
of this State,whether or not in an institution. The system shall
include services to prevent or postpone the commitment or
recommitment of citizens to mental health institutions.
(1) maintain and employ professionals qualified to
operate all inpatient treatment programs operated by the State for
the mentally ill and chemically addicted;
(2) develop a state plan for treatment of the mentally ill,
chemically addicted, and seriously emotionally disturbed;
(3) review service implementation plans submitted by
community mental health center boards and determine priorities for
funding plans or portions of plans subject to available funds;
(4) review programs provided by community mental health
center boards;
(5) offer consultation and direction to community mental health
boards;
(6) take other action not inconsistent with law to promote a high
quality of services to persons who are mentally ill, chemically
addicted, and seriously emotionally disturbed and their families.
Section 44-9-100. The commission director
may:
(1) prescribe the form of and information to be contained in
applications, records, reports, and medical certificates provided for
under this chapter, Chapter 11, Chapter 13, Article 1 of Chapter 15,
Chapter 17, Chapter 22, Chapter 23, Chapter 24, Chapter 27, and
Chapter 52;
(2) require reports from the superintendent of an institution
relating to the admission, examination, diagnosis, discharge, or
conditional discharge of a patient;
(3) investigate complaints made by a patient or by a person on
behalf of a patient;
(4) adopt regulations not inconsistent with this chapter, Chapter
11, Chapter 13, Article 1 of Chapter 15, Chapter 17, Chapter 22,
Chapter 23, Chapter 24, Chapter 27, and Chapter 52 as it may
find the director finds to be reasonably necessary for
the government of all institutions over which it has authority and of
state mental health facilities and the proper and efficient
institutionalization of the mentally ill, mentally defective, epileptic,
psychotic, senile, drug addicted, or alcoholic;
(5) take appropriate action to initiate and develop relationships
and agreements with state, local, federal, and private agencies,
hospitals, and clinics as it the director considers
necessary to increase and enhance the accessibility and delivery of
emergency and all other types of mental health services.
Section 44-9-110. The Mental Health Commission
director of the department may accept gifts, bequests,
devises, grants, and donations of money or real or personal
property on behalf of the Department of Mental Health
department or any of its facilities or services,
gifts, bequests, devises, grants, donations of money or real and
personal property of whatever kind, but no such gift or
grant shall may be accepted upon the condition that
it shall diminish diminishes an obligation due the
department. The Commission director may refuse
to accept any such a gift or grant and the
acceptance of any such a gift or grant shall
does not incur any obligation on the part of the State.
Any A gift or grant given to a specific facility or
service shall must be used for that facility or service
only, or to its successor. The Commission director
may promulgate rules and regulations governing the
disposition of such gifts and grants.
Section 44-9-120. The Commission director
shall submit an annual report to the Governor before the eleventh
day of January of each year setting forth its activities,
and the financial affairs and the state and condition of the
state mental health facilities and any other statistical information
which is usually required of facilities of the type over which it has
charge. The report shall include any recommendations
which in the opinion of the Commission director
will improve the mental health program of the State. A copy of the
report shall also must be submitted to the General
Assembly.
Section 44-9-160. Wherever in the 1976 Code reference is made
to the State Hospital, it shall mean means a state
hospital; wherever reference is made requiring the signature of the
superintendent of any a mental health facility, it
shall mean means the superintendent or his
designee; and wherever reference is made to the State
Commissioner of Mental Health, it shall mean
means the State Director of the Department of Mental
Health."
SECTION 2. Section 44-11-30 of the 1976 Code is amended to
read:
"Section 44-11-30. The South Carolina
Director of the Department of Mental Health
Commission may, in mutual agreement with the authorities
of the United States Veterans Administration, may establish
a South Carolina Veterans Home to be located on grounds owned
by the Department of Mental Health. The purpose of this home is
to provide treatment for South Carolina veterans who are mentally
ill or whose physical condition requires long-term nursing care.
Admission requirements to the home shall must be
the same as any other facility operated by the department except
that the patients at this facility shall must be South
Carolina veterans. The South Carolina State Department
of Mental Health Commission is designated as the
agency of the State to apply for and to accept gifts, grants,
and other contributions from the federal government or from
any other governmental unit units for the
operation and construction of a South Carolina Veterans
Home."
SECTION 3. Section 44-11-60 of the 1976 code is amended to
read:
"Section 44-11-60. The Director of the Department
of Mental Health Commission shall establish mental
health clinics throughout the State and shall supervise them."
SECTION 4. Section 44-11-70 of the 1976 Code is amended to
read:
"Section 44-11-70. The Director of the Department
of Mental Health Commission may authorize the
superintendents to employ suitable persons to act as marshals to
keep intruders off and prevent trespass upon state mental health
facilities. The marshals employed, insofar as state mental health
facilities are concerned, shall be are vested with all
the powers and charged with all the duties of police officers
generally. They may eject trespassers. They may without warrant
arrest persons guilty of disorderly conduct or of trespass on state
mental health facilities and have them tried in any court of
competent jurisdiction."
SECTION 5. Section 44-11-80 of the 1976 Code is amended to
read:
"Section 44-11-80. The Director of the Department
of Mental Health Commission shall fix the amount of
the salaries or emoluments of all officers and employees of state
mental health facilities."
SECTION 6. Section 44-11-110 of the 1976 Code is amended
to read:
"Section 44-11-110. The Director of the Department
of Mental Health Commission may, by resolution recorded
on the minutes of its meetings, may grant easements,
permits, or rights of way rights-of-way on,
over, or under the grounds of the facilities, but none may
be granted unless approved in writing by the Attorney General
before delivery."
SECTION 7. This act takes effect upon approval by the
Governor.
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