Title 40.1, Title 40.1 Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals

It shall be unlawful for any agency to use prohibited aversive intervention techniques on a person with a developmental disability in the state of Rhode Island. The specific strategies to be prohibited within the context of behavioral treatment interventions include, but are not …

(a) Every agency must establish a written grievance procedure. The grievance procedure shall be presented to every participant or applicant in a manner consistent with the participant’s or applicant’s learning style and be conspicuously posted in each agency. The notice of grieva…

The state shall protect and hold harmless any volunteer member of a human rights committee from financial loss and expense, including legal fees and costs, if any, arising out of any claim, demand, or suit for damages resulting from acts or omissions committed in the discharge of…

Any volunteer member of a human rights committee, acting in good faith and meeting the requirements of this statute, shall have immunity from any liability, civil or criminal, that might be incurred in the performance of his or her duties as a volunteer member of a human rights c…

Any person who willfully withholds from, or denies to, any participant in an agency any of his or her rights as granted in this chapter or who retaliates against a participant who exercises the right to register an alleged violation of rights or on whose behalf a grievance is fil…

A person convicted of any crime under this chapter shall be disqualified from holding any position in any agency licensed by the department of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals.

Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to relieve any state or federal agency from its responsibilities and obligations as set forth in state or federal law.

(a) “Abuse” means: (1) Any assault as defined in chapter 5 of title 11; (2) Any assault as defined in chapter 37 of title 11; (3) Any offense under chapter 10 of title 11; (4) Any conduct that harms or is likely to physically harm the participant except where the conduct is a par…

(a) Any person who knowingly abuses, mistreats, or neglects a participant, or commits any acts of abuse, mistreatment, or neglect as those terms are defined by § 40.1-27-1(a)(1), (2), (3), or (4), shall be fined not more than three thousand dollars ($3,000) or imprisoned not more…

(a) Any person within the scope of his or her employment at a program or in his or her professional capacity who has knowledge of, or reasonable cause to believe, that a participant in a program has been abused, mistreated, or neglected shall make, within twenty-four (24) hours o…

The director of the department of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals, or his or her designee shall: (1) Notify the attorney general, or his or her designee, the chair of the program’s human rights committee forthwith upon receipt of an oral or written…

(a) Any person so required to make a report as provided by § 40.1-27-2 and who fails to do so shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500). (b) Any person who alters or changes without authorization or destroys or renders…

Whenever a program shall receive a report by a person other than a physician that a participant has been harmed as a result of abuse, neglect, or mistreatment, the program shall have the patient examined by a licensed physician. It shall be mandatory for the physician to make a p…

Any person who, in good faith, makes an oral or written report pursuant to § 40.1-27-2, excluding any perpetrator or conspirator of the acts described in § 40.1-27-1, shall have immunity from any liability, civil or criminal, that might be incurred as a result of having made the …

A program that discharges, discriminates, or retaliates against a person who makes a report, testifies, or is about to testify in any proceeding, shall be liable to the person so discharged, discriminated, or retaliated against, for treble damages, costs, and attorney’s fees.

Any privilege established by chapter 37.3 of title 5, or any professional code relating to the exclusion of confidential communications and/or the competency of witnesses, may not be invoked in any civil or criminal action arising out of a report made pursuant to this chapter or …

A notice of the reporting requirements imposed under this chapter, and of the penalty imposed for failure to report, shall be conspicuously posted on each floor of any program required to be licensed under the provisions of § 40.1-24-1 et seq.

There is hereby created the Governor’s Council on Behavioral Health, hereinafter referred to as “the council.”

The purpose of the council is to advise the governor and general assembly on policies, goals, and operations of the behavioral health program, including the program areas of substance use disorder and mental health, and on other matters the director of behavioral healthcare, deve…

(a) The council shall consist of thirty-two (32) voting members. (1) There shall be four (4) members of the legislature, two (2) shall be from the senate and shall be appointed by the senate president to serve for their legislative term, one from each of the major political parti…

The council shall meet at least six (6) times a year. Failure to attend three (3) meetings in a year may result in a recommendation of removal from the council to the governor or other appropriate appointing authority. A quorum at the meeting shall consist of seven (7) voting mem…

The functions of the council shall be: (1) To review and evaluate the behavioral health needs and problems in the state and propose such recommendations as are appropriate; (2) To stimulate and seek the development and coordination of all programs relating to behavioral health, i…

The director of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals shall provide the council with professional and secretarial staff and other support as shall be appropriate for it to carry out its designated functions. The director of the department of children, yo…

(a) The state director of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals shall maintain appropriate facilities, including the Rhode Island state psychiatric hospital and the Eleanor Slater hospital, for the confinement of persons committed to the director’s custo…

All the necessary expenses of the examination conducted under § 40.1-5.3-6 shall be paid by the general treasurer, upon the recommendation of the justice who orders the examination.

The estate of any prisoner transferred pursuant to § 40.1-5.3-7 to the facility provided for in § 40.1-5.3-1 shall be liable for the expense of his or her care and treatment therein. At the request of the fiscal agent of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospi…

It shall be the duty of the fiscal agent to investigate all cases of prisoners transferred pursuant to § 40.1-5.3-7 to the facility provided for in § 40.1-5.3-1 to ascertain whether there is any estate belonging to the prisoners that may be applied to satisfy the liability establ…

(a) Every person committed for care and treatment under the provisions of this chapter shall retain certain constitutional and civil rights. The exercise of these rights may be limited only for good cause, and any limitation must be promptly entered into the person’s record. Thes…

Any person who has been committed or transferred to a facility for care and treatment pursuant to this chapter shall have a right to receive the care and treatment that is necessary for and appropriate to the condition for which he or she was committed or transferred and from whi…

Information or records compiled or obtained for the purposes of a person’s health care shall remain confidential and may be disclosed only as required for court proceedings or as provided under the provisions of chapter 5 of this title.

A person committed to a facility pursuant to this chapter shall be informed, in writing, of his or her rights upon admission. Copies of statements describing the rights shall be prominently posted in all facilities in which the persons are detained.

(a) Any person who willfully withholds from or denies to a person committed to a facility pursuant to this chapter any of his or her rights as herein granted, shall, on conviction thereof, be fined not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000) or imprisoned not exceeding two (2) ye…

The rights and protections contained in §§ 40.1-5.3-13, 40.1-5.3-15, 40.1-5.3-16, and 40.1-5.3-17 shall apply to all persons admitted, committed, or transferred to a facility pursuant to this chapter.

Whenever any person committed, transferred, or removed to either the Rhode Island state psychiatric hospital or the Eleanor Slater hospital to the facility provided for in § 40.1-5.3-1 shall have recovered his or her mental health sufficiently, the director may, upon request of t…

(a) Definitions. As used in this section: (1) “Attorney for the state” means the attorney general, an authorized assistant attorney general, or other person as may be authorized by law to act as a representative of the state in a criminal proceeding. (2) “Competent” or “competenc…

(a) Definitions. As used in this section: (1) “Court” means the court in which a defendant was adjudged not guilty of a criminal offense because he or she was insane at the time of its commission. (2) “Director” means the director of the state department of behavioral healthcare,…

All necessary expenses of an examination conducted under the provisions of § 40.1-5.3-3 or 40.1-5.3-4 shall be paid by the general treasurer, upon recommendation of the justice or judge who orders the examination.

On a petition of the director of the department of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals, or on the petition of the director of the department of corrections, setting forth that any person awaiting trial or convicted of a crime and imprisoned for the cri…

(a) Upon receipt of the petition and appropriate notice to the director, the attorney general, and the person, or his or her counsel, the court having jurisdiction over the case shall hold a hearing at which the parties may introduce evidence bearing on the mental condition of th…

An order of transfer entered pursuant to § 40.1-5.3-7 shall be for and during the term of the prisoner’s sentence, and shall be directed to the sheriff, or any of his or her deputies, of the county in which the prisoner stands committed.

When any person transferred pursuant to § 40.1-5.3-7 has sufficiently recovered his or her mental health, he or she may, upon petition of the director and by order of a judge of the district court or justice of the superior court in his or her discretion, be transferred to the pl…

(a) Upon receipt of the petition and appropriate notice to the attorney general and the person, or his or her counsel, the court having jurisdiction over the case shall hold a hearing at which the parties may introduce evidence bearing on the mental condition of the person. The p…

The department of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals shall be required to plan, develop, coordinate, and administer a complete, comprehensive, and integrated statewide system of mental health services. The department shall take cognizance of all matte…

The general assembly shall annually appropriate such sum as it deems necessary to enable the director of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals to provide or secure services for adults with serious mental illness; and the state controller is hereby author…

The director of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals, after consultation with agencies and individuals knowledgeable about and concerned with persons with serious mental illness, shall make and promulgate rules and regulations pertaining to services for…

Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to relieve any agency, state or local, from its obligations to provide services to individuals with serious mental illness.