Title 36 — Public Health and Safety

In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. "Administration" means the Arizona health care cost containment system administration. 2. "Admitting officer" means a psychiatrist or other physician or psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner with experience in …

A. The administration is responsible for monitoring, overseeing and evaluating its contractors and the contracted agencies providing services under this chapter to ensure that the services are provided in a timely, clinically effective and efficient manner. The administration and…

A. The director of the department shall make rules that include standards for the state hospital when providing services as an evaluation agency or mental health agency and shall prescribe forms as may be necessary for the proper administration and enforcement of those responsibi…

The medical director of an evaluation agency or the medical director of a mental health treatment agency may deputize, in writing, subject to the approval of the governing body of the agency, any qualified psychiatrist or licensed physician on the staff of the agency to do or per…

Whenever a physician or other person files a petition for court-ordered evaluation or court-ordered treatment on behalf of a state or county screening, evaluation or mental health treatment agency, the attorney general or the county attorney for the county in which the proceeding…

B. Any person who provides a court, a person, an evaluation agency or a mental health treatment agency authorized to request or order the apprehension and transportation of a patient or proposed patient with facts and circumstances or expresses an opinion that there may be reason…

The Arizona state hospital shall collect census data for adult civil commitment treatment programs to establish maximum capacity and the allocation formula required by section 36-206, subsection D. The Arizona state hospital or the department of health services is not required to…

A. The department shall identify and compile relevant educational materials and information for health care professionals and patients regarding maternal mental health conditions, including postpartum depression, that have been developed by organizations with expertise in materna…

A. Every person undergoing treatment or evaluation pursuant to this chapter is entitled to the rights set forth in this chapter and to rights that the director specifies by rule. A list of patients' rights as required by this chapter and by the administration shall be compiled an…

1. To be notified of any petition for treatment, motion for amended court order, application for continued court-ordered treatment and request for judicial review. 2. If allowed by the court, to provide the court with the guardian's or agent's position regarding the relief being …

At all hearings conducted pursuant to this chapter, persons shall have the right to an analysis of their psychological condition by an independent evaluator.

A. Persons undergoing evaluation or treatment pursuant to this chapter shall not be denied any civil right, including but not limited to, the right to dispose of property, sue and be sued, enter into contractual relationships and vote. Court-ordered treatment or evaluation pursua…

Every person undergoing evaluation or treatment pursuant to this chapter: 1. Has the right not to be fingerprinted. 2. Has the right not to be photographed without consent of the person and the person's attorney or guardian, except that the person may be photographed upon admissi…

A. When a patient is admitted on an inpatient basis to a mental health treatment agency pursuant to section 36-540, the articles of personal property which cannot be used by the patient at the institution shall be placed under the control and management of the patient's guardian …

A. A health care entity must keep records and information contained in records confidential and not as public records, except as provided in this section. Records and information contained in records may be disclosed only as authorized by state or federal law, including the healt…

B. The court, for good cause shown, may authorize the release of case records and case information regarding a court proceeding brought under article 4 or 5 of this chapter. C. The supreme court may adopt appropriate rules to govern the access to the case records and case informa…

If a patient of a mental health treatment agency works, this work shall be in the patient's interest. If the primary purpose of this work is to benefit the mental health treatment agency or any agency of the state, the patient shall be employed and paid in accordance with law. If…

B. A county, city or town that employs peace officers may contract with a process server or another person authorized by rule 4, Arizona rules of civil procedure, to provide service pursuant to this section instead of service by a peace officer. C. An evaluation agency is not fin…

A. Subject to the right to refuse psychiatric and medical treatment pursuant to sections 36-512 and 36-513 and pursuant to rules of the administration, every person undergoing evaluation or treatment pursuant to this chapter shall receive physical and psychiatric care and treatme…

A person undergoing evaluation or treatment has a right to refuse any and all medical treatment unless ordered by the court, except that when, in the written opinion of the attending physician, a true medical emergency exists and medical care and treatment including surgical proc…

A person undergoing evaluation pursuant to article 4 of this chapter shall not be treated for his mental disorder unless he consents to such treatment, except that seclusion and mechanical or pharmacological restraints may be employed in the case of emergency for the safety of th…

A. Every person who is detained for evaluation or treatment pursuant to this chapter shall have the following additional rights: 1. To be visited by the person's personal physician or other health care professional, guardian, agent appointed pursuant to chapter 32 of this title, …

A. Any person acting in good faith upon either actual knowledge or reliable information who makes application for evaluation or treatment of another person pursuant to this chapter is not subject to civil or criminal liability for such act. B. Any person who knowingly makes a fal…

Any knowing violation of a person's rights under this article shall give him a cause of action for the greater of either one thousand dollars or three times the actual amount of damages. It is not a prerequisite to this action that the plaintiff suffer or be threatened with actua…

A person guilty of any harsh or cruel treatment of, or any neglect of duty toward a mentally disordered person is guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor.

A. An agency providing evaluation or treatment, on request of a person undergoing evaluation or treatment, a member of his family or his guardian, shall review the treating professional's decision to release or withhold information requested pursuant to section 36-504, subsection…

A. There shall be no cause of action against a mental health provider nor shall legal liability be imposed for breaching a duty to prevent harm to a person caused by a patient, unless both of the following occur: 1. The patient has communicated to the mental health provider an ex…

A. Pursuant to rules of the administration, any person who is eighteen years of age or older and who manifests the capacity to give and gives informed consent may be hospitalized for evaluation, care and treatment by voluntarily applying in writing on a prescribed form. The agenc…

A. The medical director of a mental health agency shall review the case progress of all minors admitted voluntarily to the agency at least every ten days. The review shall establish the appropriateness of continued placement in a mental health agency according to progress in care…

A. The medical director of the agency shall discharge any patient admitted voluntarily who has recovered or who is no longer benefiting from the evaluation, care or treatment available, except as provided in subsection B of this section. B. Upon written request by a patient admit…

A. Any responsible individual may apply for a court-ordered evaluation of a person who is alleged to be, as a result of a mental disorder, a danger to self or to others or a person with a persistent or acute disability or a grave disability and who is unwilling or unable to under…

A. On receiving the application for evaluation, the screening agency, before filing a petition for court-ordered evaluation, shall provide prepetition screening within forty-eight hours excluding weekends and holidays when possible to determine whether there is reasonable cause t…

B. A person who has an intellectual disability may not be considered for involuntary treatment pursuant to article 5 of this chapter unless, in addition to the intellectual disability, the person has a mental disorder that would benefit from treatment. C. A person who presents wi…

A. On receipt of an application for court-ordered evaluation, if the petition for court-ordered evaluation is not filed because it has been determined that the proposed patient will voluntarily receive an evaluation and is unlikely to present a danger to self or others until the …

A. The petition for evaluation shall contain the following: 1. The name, address and interest in the case of the individual who applied for the petition. 2. The name, and address if known, of the proposed patient for whom evaluation is petitioned. 3. The present whereabouts of th…

A. A written application for emergency admission shall be made to an evaluation agency before a person may be hospitalized in the agency. B. The application for emergency admission shall be made by a person with knowledge of the facts requiring emergency admission. The applicant …

A. If the procedures set forth in section 36-524 are not available, a peace officer may take into custody any individual the peace officer has probable cause to believe is, as a result of mental disorder, a danger to self or others, and if during the time necessary to complete th…

A. On presentation of the person for emergency admission, an admitting officer of an evaluation agency shall perform an examination of the person's psychiatric and physical condition and may admit the person to the agency as an emergency patient if the admitting officer finds, as…

A. A person taken into custody for emergency admission may not be detained longer than twenty-four hours excluding weekends and holidays following such detention unless a petition for court-ordered evaluation is filed. B. A person admitted for emergency evaluation may be released…

A. A person detained under emergency detention shall be offered treatment for his mental disorder to which he may consent. The person shall not be treated for his mental disorder without his express consent, except that seclusion and mechanical or pharmacological restraints may b…

A. If, from the review of the petition for evaluation, the court does not determine that the proposed patient is likely to present a danger to self or others or further deteriorate before the proposed patient's hearing on court-ordered treatment, but determines that there is reas…

A. A person who is admitted to an evaluation agency shall receive an evaluation as soon as possible after the court's order for evaluation and, subject to the provisions of sections 36-512 and 36-513 concerning the person's right to refuse treatment, receive care and treatment as…

A. A person who is being evaluated on an inpatient basis in an evaluation agency shall be released if, in the opinion of the medical director of the agency, further evaluation is not appropriate unless the person applies for further care and treatment on a voluntary basis. B. If …

A. The petition for court-ordered treatment shall allege: 1. That the patient is in need of a period of treatment because the patient, as a result of mental disorder, is a danger to self or to others or has a persistent or acute disability or a grave disability. 2. The treatment …

A. If, after a petition for court-ordered treatment has been filed and prior to the hearing, the medical director of the evaluation agency finds that it is more appropriate to discharge the patient or to admit the proposed patient on a voluntary basis, the medical director, after…

A. If, on the filing of a petition for court-ordered treatment, the patient is not then detained in an agency, the court shall order the detention of the patient in the agency that conducted the evaluation if the court determines that the patient is likely to present a danger to …

A. At least seventy-two hours before the court conducts the hearing on the petition for court-ordered treatment, a copy of the petition, affidavits in support of the petition and the notice of the hearing shall be served on the patient, who shall be informed of the purpose of the…

A. The medical director of the agency that conducted the evaluation, at least seventy-two hours before the hearing, shall make available to the patient's attorney copies of the petition for evaluation, the prepetition screening report, the evaluation report, the patient's medical…

At all hearings conducted pursuant to sections 36-539, 36-543 and 36-546, a person has the right to have an analysis of the person's mental condition by an independent evaluator. If the person is unable to afford an evaluation, the court shall appoint an independent evaluator acc…

A. The medical director of the evaluation agency shall issue instructions to the physicians or the psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner of the evaluation agency who is treating the proposed patient to take all reasonable precautions to ensure that at the time of the h…