(a) A mental health professional testifying at hearings conducted under this part may, if appropriately qualified, give opinion testimony and, notwithstanding 12 V.S.A. § 1612, describe any information which he or she acquired in attending the patient.

(b) The facts or data in the particular case, upon which an expert bases an opinion or inference, may be those perceived by or made known to him or her at or before the hearing. If of a type reasonably relied upon by experts in the particular field in forming opinions or inferences upon the subject, the facts or data need not be admissible in evidence. (Added 1977, No. 252 (Adj. Sess.), § 29.)