Brief(1)
S.B. 536 enacts a new Care and Treatment Act for Persons with an Alcohol and Substance Abuse Problem and makes various technical amendments to the Care and Treatment Act for Mentally Ill Persons.
The new act recodifies and combines two existing acts: the Treatment Act for Drug Abusers at K.S.A. 65-5201 et seq., and the Alcoholism and Intoxication Treatment Act at K.S.A. 65-4001 et seq. The recodification provides parallel and nearly identical procedures to those contained in the Care and Treatment Act for Mentally Ill Persons, K.S.A. 59-2945 et seq., which was recodified and revised in 1996.
The following is a summary of the major provisions of the bill. The bill provides in Section 2 for a number of definitions including "voluntary patient" and "involuntary patient," "likely to cause harm to self or others," and "treatment facility."
A person with an alcohol or substance abuse problem may be admitted to a treatment facility as a voluntary patient when there are available accommodations and the head of the treatment facility determines such person is in need of treatment therein, and that the person has the capacity to consent to treatment (see Section 5). Any law enforcement officer who has a reasonable belief formed upon investigation that a person may be a person with an alcohol or substance abuse problem subject to involuntary commitment and is likely to cause harm to self or others if allowed to remain at liberty may take the person into custody without a warrant (see Section 9).
Procedures for a treatment facility to admit a person for emergency observation are set out in Section 10. Procedures for: the filing of a petition for a determination of whether a person is in need of involuntary treatment (Section 13), a hearing on the petition (Section 15), a trial to the court or to a jury (Section 21), medications (Section 30), the use of restraints or seclusion (Section 31), and patients' rights (Section 32) are provided.
The amendments to the Care and Treatment Act for Mentally Ill Persons are technical and clarifying in nature. The Senate Committee amended the bill to repeal an obsolete statute (K.S.A. 59-2946a) dealing with the sex predators that was to amend the Care and Treatment Act for Mentally Ill Persons only if the sex predator law (K.S.A. 59-29a01 et seq.) was found to be unconstitutional.
Background
S.B. 536 was recommended by the Care and Treatment Advisory Committee of the Kansas Judicial Council. The Kansas Advocacy and Protective Services, Inc., testified on the bill, but took no position.
The bill would have no fiscal impact on the state.
The House Committee amended the bill to provide that a qualified mental health professional authorized to diagnose mental disorder would be added to physicians or psychologists as those who can conduct mental evaluations. Other amendments repeal an obsolete provision in K.S.A. (1997 Supp.) 59-2972.
1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext-bill.html.