Length of Detention in Evaluating Facility; Discharge; Procedure Upon Determination of Need for Hospitalization or Involuntary Treatment; Recipients of Notice of Discharge From Facility

  1. Law
  2. Georgia Code
  3. Mental Health
  4. Examination, Treatment, etc., for Mental Illness
  5. Examination, Hospitalization, and Treatment of Involuntary Patients
  6. Evaluating Facilities for Examination of Persons Ordered to Undergo Evaluation for Mental Illness
  7. Length of Detention in Evaluating Facility; Discharge; Procedure Upon Determination of Need for Hospitalization or Involuntary Treatment; Recipients of Notice of Discharge From Facility

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  1. A patient who has been admitted to an evaluating facility pursuant to Code Section 37-3-43, 37-3-63, or subparagraph (a)(3)(B) of Code Section 37-3-81.1 may be detained for a period not to exceed five days, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays excluded. The patient shall be discharged upon a finding that the patient is not a mentally ill person requiring involuntary treatment or upon a finding and certification that the patient meets all of the outpatient treatment requirements of paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection (c) of Code Section 37-3-90, in which event a patient meeting those outpatient treatment requirements shall be discharged under the conditions provided in Code Section 37-3-91 but, in any event, upon the expiration of the five-day evaluation period unless:
    1. Within that period:
      1. The patient is admitted as a voluntary patient under Code Section 37-3-20; or
      2. The patient is admitted for involuntary inpatient treatment under Code Section 37-3-81; or
    2. The patient is under criminal charges, notice of which has been given in writing to the facility, in which case the provisions of Code Section 37-3-95 shall apply.
  2. If hospitalization appears desirable, the staff physicians or psychologists of the evaluating facility shall encourage the patient to apply for voluntary hospitalization unless the attending physician or treating psychologist finds that the patient is unable to understand the nature of voluntary hospitalization, that voluntary hospitalization would be harmful to the patient, or that the patient is determined to be a mentally ill person in need of involuntary treatment, which finding shall be entered in the patient's record.
  3. If, after evaluation of the patient, it is determined by the chief medical officer that proceedings for involuntary treatment of the patient should be initiated pursuant to Code Section 37-3-81 or pursuant to Part 4 of this article, the chief medical officer shall direct that an individualized service plan be developed for that patient during the five-day period that he is detained for evaluation in the facility.
  4. Notice of the discharge shall be given to the patient and his representatives; to the person who filed the petition; if the patient was admitted to the evaluating facility from an emergency receiving facility under Code Section 37-3-43, to the physician or psychologist who executed the certificate or to the court which issued the order pursuant to Code Section 37-3-41; if the patient was under criminal charges of which the facility received written notification, by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery to the law enforcement agency originally having custody of the patient; and, if the patient was admitted to the evaluating facility under Code Section 37-3-62, to the court that ordered the evaluation.

(Code 1933, §§ 88-505.5, 88-505.6, enacted by Ga. L. 1969, p. 505, § 1; Ga. L. 1977, p. 1293, § 9; Ga. L. 1978, p. 1789, § 1; Ga. L. 1986, p. 1098, § 3; Ga. L. 1991, p. 1059, § 13; Ga. L. 1992, p. 1902, § 4; Ga. L. 1996, p. 6, § 37; Ga. L. 2000, p. 1589, § 3.)

Editor's notes.

- Ga. L. 2000, p. 1589, § 16, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that the amendment to this Code section is applicable with respect to notices delivered on or after July 1, 2000.

Law reviews.

- For comment advocating legislative determination of parental liability for costs of institutional custody of child involuntarily committed to a mental health facility in response to criminal behavior in light of Treglown v. Department of Health & Social Servs., 38 Wis. 2d 317, 156 N.W.2d 363 (1968), see 19 Mercer L. Rev. 457 (1968).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Construction.

- Former Code 1933, Ch. 49-6 and Ga. L. 1969, p. 505 (see former Ch. 5, T. 29 and O.C.G.A. Ch. 3, T. 37) were meant to be read together for procedural purposes. Kiker v. Kiker, 126 Ga. App. 39, 189 S.E.2d 880 (1972).

Exhaustion of statutory remedies prerequisite before invoking habeas corpus.

- When a person has been adjudged insane and committed to an institution, and thereafter seeks to be discharged upon the ground that the person's sanity has been restored, the person cannot invoke the writ of habeas corpus without showing that the person has exhausted specific statutory remedies, when such are provided; however, a party might, perhaps, show some valid reason excusing failure to pursue a statutory remedy, even in a case when ordinarily the party should pursue the remedy. Richardson v. Hall, 199 Ga. 602, 34 S.E.2d 888 (1945).

Continuing presumption of insanity follows prior judicial determination.

- When the defendant in a release hearing had been examined three separate times to determine mental competency in relation to a criminal trial, and there had been a judicial determination that the defendant was not mentally responsible for the defendant's crimes and apparently not competent to stand trial, there existed a continuing presumption of insanity at the time of the release hearing. Pitts v. State, 151 Ga. App. 691, 261 S.E.2d 435 (1979).

When a prior determination based on clear and convincing evidence, as when the trial court had for the court's consideration the evidence of numerous prior committals for psychiatric treatment, evidence that following release from such structured treatment, defendant had suffered decompensation and had often become violent and aggressive toward self or others when not undergoing a regular course of treatment and medication, even though the state did not affirmatively offer it or any additional evidence at the release hearing. Pitts v. State, 151 Ga. App. 691, 261 S.E.2d 435 (1979).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Medical admissions county was a county in which the procedure was governed by Ga. L. 1969, p. 505. 1972 Op. Att'y Gen. No. U72-29.

RESEARCH REFERENCES

ALR.

- When finding or adjudication as to one's mental condition by official or body not clearly judicial is conclusive evidence or effect of a judgment as regards legal mental status, 108 A.L.R. 47.

Test or criterion of mental condition within contemplation of statute providing for commitment of persons because of mental condition, 158 A.L.R. 1220.

May proceedings to have a person declared insane and to appoint a conservator or committee of his person or estate rest upon substituted or constructive service of process, 175 A.L.R. 1324.

Liability of one releasing institutionalized mental patient for harm he causes, 38 A.L.R.3d 699.

Standard of proof required under statute providing for commitment of sexual offenders or sexual psychopaths, 96 A.L.R.3d 840.


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