An Act To Improve Maine's Involuntaty Commitment Processes
Maine Legislature, Session 127, LD 1145
Committee Amendment CA_A_H464 (House)
Amends: 34-B MRSA §3863

COMMITTEE AMENDMENT ,/i" to H.P. 783, L.D. 1145, Bill, "An Act To 
Improve Maine's Involuntaty Commitment Processes" 
Amend the bill in section I in subsection 4 in paragraph D in the first line (page 1, 
line 13 in L.D.) by striking out the following: "a recognized form of" and inserting the 
following: 'a currently recognized standard of 
Amend the bill in section 1 in subsection 4 by striking out all of paragraph E (page 1, 
lines 16 to 19 in L.D.) and inselting the following: 
'E. 
For purposes of evaluation for, emergency involuntary treatment" the medical 
practitioner considers available history and infonnation from other sources, 
including, but not limited to, family members, that are considered reliable by the 
examiner; and' 
Amend the bill by inselting after section 4 the following: 
'Sec. 5. 34-B MRSA §3863, sub-§7-A is enacted to read: 
7-A,' Post-admission discharge. If it is necessary to discharge a person because 
findings required for admission under subsection 2 are not certified in a 2nd opinion by a 
staff physician or licensed clinical psychologist after examination in accordance with 
subsection 7, the staff physician or licensed clinical psychologist s~all record the 
discharge on the written application, which must contain a statement that the findings 
required for the person's admission specified under subsection 2 were not met.' 
Amend tl1el5i11 in section T5y striKing out aU ofparagrapn E (page 2, line T6 in C.D.) 
and inserting the following: 
'E. The person has capacity to make an informed decision for'informal voluntary 
admission, agrees to informal voluntary admission and the chief administrative 
officer of the hospital determines that informal voluntary admissiori is suitable.' 
Amend the bill by relettering or renumbering any nonconsecutive Part letter or 
section number to read consecutively. 
COMMITTEE AMENDMENT 
ROFS 
COlVIMITTEE AMENDMENT "0" to H.P. 783, L.D. 1145 
SUMMARY 
This amendment clarifies the terminology used to describe the emergency treatment 
to be involuntarily provided to reflect that the treatment must be a cUlTently recognized 
standard of treatment. 
This amendment clarifies that the sources of available history and other information 
may include family members without implying family members are always a reliable 
source. 
This amendment requires that when a physician or clinical psychologist has evah~ated 
a person for the purpose of providing a 2nd opinion on whether the person meets the 
criteria for emergency admission to a psychiatric hospital and determines that the person 
does not meet the criteria, the physician or clinical psychologist must record the discharge 
upon the written application for emergency admission. The application must contain a 
statement that the person does not satisfy the criteria for emergency admission. 
This amendment clarifies the standard for a person's consent to infonnal voluntalY 
admission once the involuntalY commitment process has stalied. 
FISCAL NOTE REQUIRED 
(See attached) 
COMMITTEE AMENDMENT 
Approved: 06/}6/l5 
.::&czc: 
LD 1145 
LR 959(02) 
An Act To Improve Maine's Involuntary Commitment Processes 
Fiscal Note for Dill as Amcnueq by Committee Amendment ~{ ;I -'1ul-D 
Committee: Judiciary 
-
Fiscal Note Required: Yes 
Fiscal Note 
Minor cost increase - General Fund 
Fiscal Detail and Notes 
Any additional costs to the Department of Health and Human Services related to the provisions of this bill can be 
absorbed within existing budgeted resources. 
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LR0959(02) - Fiscal Note - Page 1 of 1