KRS § 210.520 — KY Code / Title XVIII / Chapter 210 / Section 210.520
210.520 Enactment of compact
Status: in_force

210.520 Enactment of compact.

The interstate compact on mental health is hereby enacted into law and entered into by

this state with all other states legally joining therein 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

responsibility 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 non-party 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 person

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 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.