Report Title:

Voluntary Admission for Nonemergency Treatment

Description:

Allows parents or guardians to admit individuals under the age of eighteen to nonemergency treatment facilities without the consent or countersignature of the individual. (SB3041 HD2)

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

3041

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

S.D. 2

STATE OF HAWAII

H.D. 2


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO VOLUNTARY ADMISSION FOR NONEMERGENCY TREATMENT.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Section 334-60.1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:

"(b) A facility may admit for evaluation, diagnosis, or treatment any individual under [fifteen] eighteen years of age for whom application is made by the individual’s parent or guardian. [If application for admission is countersigned by a minor aged fifteen through seventeen years before a family court officer, no hearing shall be necessary. If the minor elects not to sign, involuntary hospitalization proceedings shall be initiated.] A minor who is fifteen through seventeen years of age who does not voluntarily countersign the application to be hospitalized may be admitted as a patient for nonemergency mental health treatment with the consent of a parent or legal guardian if the following conditions are met:

(1) An inquiry is made by a neutral factfinder to determine whether the statutory requirements for admission are satisfied. This inquiry shall include an interview with the minor and a review of as much of the minor's background as is available from other sources, including but not limited to parents, schools, and other social agencies;

(2) The psychiatric facility shall have the authority to refuse to admit any minor who does not satisfy the criteria of medical necessity, as defined under section 432E-1.4, for admission; and

(3) The minor's continuing need for hospitalization shall be reviewed periodically by a similarly independent procedure.

As used in this subsection, "neutral factfinder" means any natural person, who need not be a law-trained or a judicial or administrative officer."

SECTION 2. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured and proceedings that were begun before its effective date.

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2020.