Title 52, Department of Disability and Aging

(1) Information that is confidential under § 52-3-103 may be disclosed without consent of the person supported if:(1) Disclosure is necessary to carry out duties under this title;(2) Disclosure is for the purposes of treatment, payment for treatment, or health care operations as …

(a) If the head of the federally mandated protection and advocacy agency for persons with an intellectual or developmental disability, or the designated representative of the agency head, requests disclosure of information protected by § 52-3-103 and specifies the personally iden…

The department may promulgate rules to implement this part, including rules on the form, content, and means of consent and disclosure, scope of permissible disclosure, and definitions of terms.

(a) Section 52-3-103 does not preclude making reports of harm or granting access to records if making reports of harm or granting access to records is:(1) Expressly required by title 37, chapter 1, part 4;(2) Expressly required by title 37, chapter 1, part 6;(3) Expressly require…

(a) A person supported must be given an opportunity to approve and sign an information release that authorizes the facility, service, or program to release specified information concerning the person supported to certain family members and other designated persons. (b) The person…

(a) Section 52-3-103 does not prohibit disclosure to a law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction over felonious acts of bodily harm or sexual offenses that appear to have been committed on the premises of a facility whose records are made confidential by § 52-3-103. (b) If the…

(a) In any case where a person is known to have been accused of physically or sexually abusing or neglecting a person supported who is a child, the person supported's record must not be accessible to the person accused of the abuse or neglect, except if:(1) A court orders access …

(a) Upon request by a person supported eighteen (18) years of age or older, or the person supported's conservator, if applicable, a service provider must disclose to the person supported or their conservator what records the provider maintains on the person supported and how the …

(a) If a person supported, or that person's conservator with healthcare decision-making authority, requests amendment of the person supported's record by revision, deletion, or addition to correct the record, then the service provider must, within ten (10) working days after rece…

(1) Notwithstanding any evidentiary privilege, including pursuant to §§ 24-1-207, 63-11-213, 63-22-114, and 63-23-109, a qualified mental health professional may be compelled to testify:(1) In judicial proceedings under this title to commit a person with an intellectual disabilit…

A violation of §§ 52-3-103 — 52-3-114 is a Class C misdemeanor.

(a) If a person supported is involuntarily committed to an inpatient treatment facility under this title, then the inpatient treatment facility must report the person supported to local law enforcement as soon as practicable, but no later than the third business day following the…

(a) Persons supported have the right to be free from isolation and restraints, in any form, imposed as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience, or retaliation by staff. Restraints include physical and mechanical restraints and drugs used to control behavior or to restrict fr…

(1) A certificate of need for commitment for care and treatment for a person with an intellectual disability that is authorized or required to be made by a physician, psychologist, or other professional under this title is not valid for any purpose if:(1) It is made by a professi…

A licensee or provider under this title shall not discourage or preclude a person supported from exercising the right to religious expression and shall inform each person supported in a residential environment of this right.

(a) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires:(1) “Counseling center” means any nonprofit service operated at least partially with volunteer assistance that provides counseling, assistance, or guidance, either in person or by telephone, to persons with mental…

(a) While acting in good faith, the directors of a not-for-profit corporation that provides community residential services or supports for persons with an intellectual or developmental disability are not held personally liable for tortious acts committed by the corporation's pers…

(1) A qualified mental health professional or behavior analyst shall take reasonable care to predict, warn of, or take precautions to protect an identified victim from a person supported's violent behavior only if:(1) The person supported has communicated to the professional or a…

(1) The duty imposed by § 52-3-203 may be discharged by the qualified mental health professional or behavior analyst by:(1) Informing the clearly identified victim of the threat;(2) Having the person supported admitted on a voluntary basis to a hospital;(3) Taking steps to seek a…

(1) An employee of a service provider shall communicate a threat to a qualified mental health professional or behavior analyst employed by the service provider only if:(1) The employee is normally responsible for transmitting or recording communications from a person supported to…

If a qualified mental health professional or behavior analyst has satisfied the person's duty under § 52-3-203, § 52-3-205, or § 52-3-207, monetary liability and a cause of action do not arise against the qualified mental health professional or behavior analyst, or any service pr…

(a) If a person supported has communicated to a qualified mental health professional or behavior analyst an actual threat of serious bodily harm or death against a reasonably identifiable victim or victims, then the qualified mental health professional or behavior analyst, using …

(1) Monetary liability and a cause of action do not arise against a person or the service provider in whose service the person was acting for, if:(1) The person has refused to perform any act that is prohibited by or is not lawful under this title; or(2) The person has relinquish…

The department may prescribe a uniform assessment process through rule or policy by which to determine whether a person supported lacks capacity to make decisions on issues within the meaning of § 52-3-210.

(1) A person “lacks capacity” under this title for a decision about a routine medical, dental, or mental health treatment if:(1) The person supported, due to an intellectual disability or mental impairment related to a developmental disability, is unable to make an informed decis…

(1) A surrogate may decide for the person supported with respect to the matter in question, and the surrogate who acts in good faith, reasonably, and without malice in connection with the decision is free from all liability, civil or criminal, by reason of the decision, if:(1) (A…

(1) An adult is eligible to serve as a surrogate decision maker for a person supported on the matter in question under §§ 52-3-211 and 52-3-213, if the physician, psychologist, or dentist reasonably determines that the adult:(1) Knows about the person supported's intellectual or …

(1) If the physician, psychologist, or dentist knows of no family member, of the same or higher order of preference as the surrogate under § 52-3-212(6)(F), who objects to the surrogate's decision, and if the proposed treatment is not solely for behavior control of a person suppo…

(a) The commissioner may authorize the transfer of a person in a facility of the department to another department facility or to a private facility under this section. The commissioner shall give due consideration to the relationship of the person to family, guardian, conservator…

(a) The chief officer of the youth development center of the department of children's services shall order the person's transfer and shall notify the person of the decision and the reasons in writing not less than twenty-four (24) hours in advance of the proposed transfer if the …

Notwithstanding this title, a person with an intellectual or developmental disability, with respect to whom proceedings for admission under a court order have been commenced, must not be released or discharged during the pendency of the proceedings, unless ordered by the court up…

(a) In all judicial proceedings under this title, the clerk of the court in which the proceedings are held shall keep a careful and accurate record of the proceedings. (b) (1) Whenever, in a judicial proceeding under this title, a person has been ordered admitted, the clerk of th…

(a) The reasonable costs incurred in judicial proceedings under this title must be paid by the subject of the proceedings or the subject's estate or by the subject's responsible relatives and must be a charge upon the estate of those liable. (b) The reasonable costs incurred in j…

(a) (1) Any judicial proceeding under this title may be conducted by the use of audio-visual technology as set out in this section.(2) For any other proceedings under this title, the use of audio-visual technology is permissible with the agreement of all parties and at the court'…

Pleadings and any certificates of need for care and treatment that must be filed in proceedings under this title may be delivered to the court in conformity with the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure.

Any person with an intellectual or developmental disability in a public or private residential facility for persons with an intellectual or developmental disability is entitled to file for a writ of habeas corpus upon petition by the person with an intellectual or developmental d…

During any proceeding to determine whether to release a person with an intellectual or developmental disability seeking release by means of a writ of habeas corpus under this part, § 52-3-101, or otherwise, the court shall also, if the issue is raised in the responsive pleading, …

(a) If, upon consideration of a petition filed pursuant to § 52-3-501, the court determines that the person was not committed under the governing provisions of this title or was not afforded due process of law, but that, nevertheless, the person has an intellectual disability and…

If the court ordering the discharge is not the court that ordered the commitment, then the court must transmit a certified copy of the order to the court that ordered the commitment. Upon receipt of the copy, the court that ordered the commitment shall enter an order finding that…

(a) A person commits a Class E felony who:(1) Without probable cause to believe a person has an intellectual or developmental disability, causes or conspires with or assists a third person to cause the hospitalization or commitment of the person under this title; or(2) Causes or …

It is a Class C misdemeanor for any person to knowingly furnish false information for the purpose of securing the commitment of any person to a facility for persons with an intellectual or developmental disability.

Any employee of a service provider who has sexual relations with a person supported, other than the employee's spouse, or commits sexual battery on a person supported, knowing or having reason to believe that the person is a person supported of the service provider, is subject to…

(a) A person commits a Class E felony who:(1) Counsels, causes, influences, aids, or assists a person supported with an intellectual or developmental disability to leave a facility without valid legal authority after the person supported was committed under court order;(2) Harbor…