RCW 72.27.010
Compact enacted.The Interstate Compact on
Mental Health is hereby enacted into law and entered into by this
state with all other states legally joining therein in the form
substantially as follows:
The contracting states solemnly agree that:
ARTICLE I
The party states find that the proper and expeditious
treatment of the mentally ill and mentally deficient can be facilitated by
cooperative action, to the benefit of the patients, their
families, and society as a whole. Further, the party states find
that the necessity of and desirability for furnishing such care
and treatment bears no primary relation to the residence or
citizenship of the patient but that, on the contrary, the
controlling factors of community safety and humanitarianism
require that facilities and services be made available for all
who are in need of them. Consequently, it is the purpose of this
compact and of the party states to provide the necessary legal
basis for the institutionalization or other appropriate care and
treatment of the mentally ill and mentally deficient under a system that
recognizes the paramount importance of patient welfare and to
establish the responsibilities of the party states in terms of
such welfare.
ARTICLE II
As used in this compact:
(a) "Sending state" shall mean a party state from which a
patient is transported pursuant to the provisions of the compact
or from which it is contemplated that a patient may be so sent.
(b) "Receiving state" shall mean a party state to which a
patient is transported pursuant to the provisions of the compact
or to which it is contemplated that a patient may be so sent.
(c) "Institution" shall mean any hospital or other facility
maintained by a party state or political subdivision thereof for
the care and treatment of mental illness or mental deficiency.
(d) "Patient" shall mean any person subject to or eligible
as determined by the laws of the sending state, for
institutionalization or other care, treatment, or supervision
pursuant to the provisions of this compact.
(e) "After-care" shall mean care, treatment and services
provided a patient, as defined herein, on convalescent status or
conditional release.
(f) "Mental illness" shall mean mental disease to such
extent that a person so afflicted requires care and treatment for
his own welfare, or the welfare of others, or of the community.
(g) "Mental deficiency" shall mean mental deficiency as
defined by appropriate clinical authorities to such extent that a
person so afflicted is incapable of managing himself and his
affairs, but shall not include mental illness as defined herein.
(h) "State" shall mean any state, territory or possession of
the United States, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth
of Puerto Rico.
ARTICLE III
(a) Whenever a person physically present in any party state
shall be in need of institutionalization by reason of mental
illness or mental deficiency, he shall be eligible for care and
treatment in an institution in that state irrespective of his
residence, settlement or citizenship qualifications.
(b) The provisions of paragraph (a) of this article to the
contrary notwithstanding, any patient may be transferred to an
institution in another state whenever there are factors based
upon clinical determinations indicating that the care and
treatment of said patient would be facilitated or improved
thereby. Any such institutionalization may be for the entire
period of care and treatment or for any portion or portions
thereof. The factors referred to in this paragraph shall include
the patient's full record with due regard for the location of the
patient's family, character of the illness and probable duration
thereof, and such other factors as shall be considered
appropriate.
(c) No state shall be obliged to receive any patient
pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (b) of this article
unless the sending state has given advance notice of its
intention to send the patient; furnished all available medical
and other pertinent records concerning the patient; given the
qualified medical or other appropriate clinical authorities of
the receiving state an opportunity to examine the patient if said
authorities so wish; and unless the receiving state shall agree
to accept the patient.
(d) In the event that the laws of the receiving state
establish a system of priorities for the admission of patients,
an interstate patient under this compact shall receive the same
priority as a local patient and shall be taken in the same order
and at the same time that he would be taken if he were a local
patient.
(e) Pursuant to this compact, the determination as to the
suitable place of institutionalization for a patient may be
reviewed at any time and such further transfer of the patient may
be made as seems likely to be in the best interest of the
patient.
ARTICLE IV
(a) Whenever, pursuant to the laws of the state in which a
patient is physically present, it shall be determined that the
patient should receive after-care or supervision, such care or
supervision may be provided in a receiving state. If the medical
or other appropriate clinical authorities having responsibility
for the care and treatment of the patient in the sending state
shall have reason to believe that after-care in another state
would be in the best interest of the patient and would not
jeopardize the public safety, they shall request the appropriate
authorities in the receiving state to investigate the
desirability of affording the patient such after-care in said
receiving state, and such investigation shall be made with all
reasonable speed. The request for investigation shall be
accompanied by complete information concerning the patient's
intended place of residence and the identity of the person in
whose charge it is proposed to place the patient, the complete
medical history of the patient, and such other documents as may
be pertinent.
(b) If the medical or other appropriate clinical authorities
having responsibility for the care and treatment of the patient
in the sending state and the appropriate authorities in the
receiving state find that the best interest of the patient would
be served thereby, and if the public safety would not be
jeopardized thereby, the patient may receive after-care or
supervision in the receiving state.
(c) In supervising, treating, or caring for a patient on
after-care pursuant to the terms of this article, a receiving
state shall employ the same standards of visitation, examination,
care, and treatment that it employs for similar local patients.
ARTICLE V
Whenever a dangerous or potentially dangerous patient
escapes from an institution in any party state, that state shall
promptly notify all appropriate authorities within and without
the jurisdiction of the escape in a manner reasonably calculated
to facilitate the speedy apprehension of the escapee. Immediately upon the apprehension and identification of any such
dangerous or potentially dangerous patient, he shall be detained
in the state where found pending disposition in accordance with
law.
ARTICLE VI
The duly accredited officers of any state party to this
compact, upon the establishment of their authority and the
identity of the patient, shall be permitted to transport any
patient being moved pursuant to this compact through any and all
states party to this compact, without interference.
ARTICLE VII
(a) No person shall be deemed a patient of more than one
institution at any given time. Completion of transfer of any
patient to an institution in a receiving state shall have the
effect of making the person a patient of the institution in the
receiving state.
(b) The sending state shall pay all costs of and incidental
to the transportation of any patient pursuant to this compact,
but any two or more party states may, by making a specific
agreement for that purpose, arrange for a different allocation of
costs as among themselves.
(c) No provision of this compact shall be construed to alter
or affect any internal relationships among the departments,
agencies and officers of and in the government of a party state,
or between a party state and its subdivisions, as to the payment
of costs, or responsibilities therefor.
(d) Nothing in this compact shall be construed to prevent
any party state or subdivision thereof from asserting any right
against any person, agency or other entity in regard to costs for
which such party state or subdivision thereof may be responsible
pursuant to any provision of this compact.
(e) Nothing in this compact shall be construed to invalidate
any reciprocal agreement between a party state and a nonparty
state relating to institutionalization, care or treatment of the mentally ill or mentally deficient, or any statutory authority
pursuant to which such agreements may be made.
ARTICLE VIII
(a) Nothing in this compact shall be construed to abridge,
diminish, or in any way impair the rights, duties, and
responsibilities of any patient's guardian on his own behalf or
in respect of any patient for whom he may serve, except that
where the transfer of any patient to another jurisdiction makes
advisable the appointment of a supplemental or substitute
guardian, any court of competent jurisdiction in the receiving
state may make such supplemental or substitute appointment and
the court which appointed the previous guardian shall upon being
duly advised of the new appointment, and upon the satisfactory
completion of such accounting and other acts as such court may by
law require, relieve the previous guardian of power and
responsibility to whatever extent shall be appropriate in the
circumstances: PROVIDED, HOWEVER, That in the case of any
patient having settlement in the sending state, the court of
competent jurisdiction in the sending state shall have the sole
discretion to relieve a guardian appointed by it or continue his
power and responsibility, whichever it shall deem advisable. The
court in the receiving state may, in its discretion, confirm or
reappoint the person or persons previously serving as guardian in
the sending state in lieu of making a supplemental or substitute
appointment.
(b) The term "guardian" as used in paragraph (a) of this
article shall include any guardian, trustee, legal committee,
conservator, or other person or agency however denominated who is
charged by law with power to act for or responsibility for the
person or property of a patient.
ARTICLE IX
(a) No provision of this compact except Article V shall
apply to any person institutionalized while under sentence in a
penal or correctional institution or while subject to trial on a
criminal charge, or whose institutionalization is due to the
commission of an offense for which, in the absence of mental
illness or mental deficiency, said person would be subject to
incarceration in a penal or correctional institution.
(b) To every extent possible, it shall be the policy of
states party to this compact that no patient shall be placed or
detained in any prison, jail or lockup, but such patient shall,
with all expedition, be taken to a suitable institutional
facility for mental illness or mental deficiency.
ARTICLE X
(a) Each party state shall appoint a "compact administrator"
who, on behalf of his state, shall act as general coordinator of
activities under the compact in his state and who shall receive
copies of all reports, correspondence, and other documents
relating to any patient processed under the compact by his state
either in the capacity of sending or receiving state. The
compact administrator or his duly designated representative shall
be the official with whom other party states shall deal in any
matter relating to the compact or any patient processed
thereunder.
(b) The compact administrators of the respective party
states shall have power to promulgate reasonable rules and
regulations to carry out more effectively the terms and
provisions of this compact.
ARTICLE XI
The duly constituted administrative authorities of any two
or more party states may enter into supplementary agreements for
the provision of any service or facility or for the maintenance
of any institution on a joint or cooperative basis whenever the
states concerned shall find that such agreements will improve
services, facilities, or institutional care and treatment in the
fields of mental illness or mental deficiency. No such
supplementary agreement shall be construed so as to relieve any
party state of any obligation which it otherwise would have under
other provisions of this compact.
ARTICLE XII
This compact shall enter into full force and effect as to
any state when enacted by it into law and such state shall
thereafter be a party thereto with any and all states legally
joining therein.
ARTICLE XIII
(a) A state party to this compact may withdraw therefrom by
enacting a statute repealing the same. Such withdrawal shall
take effect one year after notice thereof has been communicated
officially and in writing to the governors and compact
administrators of all other party states. However, the
withdrawal of any state shall not change the status of any
patient who has been sent to said state or sent out of said state
pursuant to the provisions of the compact.
(b) Withdrawal from any agreement permitted by Article
VII(b) as to costs or from any supplementary agreement made
pursuant to Article XI shall be in accordance with the terms of
such agreement.
ARTICLE XIV
This compact shall be liberally construed so as to
effectuate the purposes thereof. The provisions of this compact
shall be severable and if any phrase, clause, sentence or
provision of this compact is declared to be contrary to the
constitution of any party state or of the United States or the
applicability thereof to any government, agency, person or
circumstance is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of
this compact and the applicability thereof to any government,
agency, person or circumstance shall not be affected thereby. If
this compact shall be held contrary to the constitution of any
state party thereto, the compact shall remain in full force and
effect as to the remaining states and in full force and effect as
to the state affected as to all severable matters.[1965 ex.s. c
26 § 1.]
NOTES:
Chapter added: "The foregoing provisions of this act are
added to chapter 28, Laws of 1959 and to Title 72 RCW, and shall
constitute a new chapter therein." [1965 ex.s. c 26 § 8.]
Effective date -- 1965 ex.s. c 26: "This act shall take
effect upon July 1, 1965." [1965 ex.s. c 26 § 9.]