1-1     By:  Tillery (Senate Sponsor - Carona)                H.B. No. 1797
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 3, 1999;
 1-3     May 3, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on Human
 1-4     Services; May 12, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 12, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the transportation of certain individuals who may have
 1-9     a mental illness and are admitted to a county mental health
1-10     facility for emergency detention.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Section 573.022, Health and Safety Code, is
1-13     amended to read as follows:
1-14           Sec. 573.022.  EMERGENCY ADMISSION AND DETENTION.  (a) A
1-15     person may be admitted to a facility for emergency detention only
1-16     if the physician who conducted the preliminary examination of the
1-17     person makes a written statement that:
1-18                 (1)  is acceptable to the facility;
1-19                 (2)  states that after a preliminary examination it is
1-20     the physician's opinion that:
1-21                       (A)  the person is mentally ill;
1-22                       (B)  the person evidences a substantial risk of
1-23     serious harm to himself or others;
1-24                       (C)  the described risk of harm is imminent
1-25     unless the person is immediately restrained; and
1-26                       (D)  emergency detention is the least restrictive
1-27     means by which the necessary restraint may be accomplished; and
1-28                 (3)  includes:
1-29                       (A)  a description of the nature of the person's
1-30     mental illness;
1-31                       (B)  a specific description of the risk of harm
1-32     the person evidences that may be demonstrated either by the
1-33     person's behavior or by evidence of severe emotional distress and
1-34     deterioration in the person's mental condition to the extent that
1-35     the person cannot remain at liberty; and
1-36                       (C)  the specific detailed information from which
1-37     the physician formed the opinion in Subdivision (2).
1-38           (b)  A county mental health facility that has admitted a
1-39     person for emergency detention under this section may transport the
1-40     person to:
1-41                 (1)  a facility of the single portal authority for the
1-42     area;
1-43                 (2)  an appropriate inpatient mental health facility,
1-44     if no single portal authority serves the area; or
1-45                 (3)  a facility deemed suitable by the county's mental
1-46     health authority, if no single portal authority serves the area and
1-47     an appropriate inpatient mental health facility is not available.
1-48           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-49     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-50     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-51     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-52     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-53     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-54     passage, and it is so enacted.
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