Arkansas Code of 1987 (2023) › Title 20 - PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE (§§ 20-2-101 — 20-86-113) › Subtitle 3 - MENTAL HEALTH (§§ 20-45-101 — 20-50-106) › Chapter 47 - TREATMENT OF THE MENTALLY ILL (§§ 20-47-101 — 20-47-1007) › Subchapter 2 - COMMITMENT AND TREATMENT (§§ 20-47-201 — 20-47-230) › Section 20-47-202 - Definitions

As used in this subchapter:
(1)
"Administrator" means the chief administrative officer or executive director of any private or public facility or of any community mental health center certified by the Division of Aging, Adult, and Behavioral Health Services of the Department of Human Services;
(2)
"Behavior history" means a person's statements or actions on specific occasions as established by the person's declarations, observations of others, or records;
(3)
"Community mental health center" means a program and its affiliates established and administered by the state, or a private, nonprofit corporation certified by the division for the purpose of providing mental health services to the residents of a defined geographic area and which minimally provides twenty-four-hour emergency, inpatient, outpatient, consultation, education, prevention, partial care, follow-up and aftercare, and initial screening and precare services. The division may contract with a community mental health center for the operation and administration of any services which are part of the state mental health system;
(4)
"Crisis response services" means immediate or emergency treatment. Because mental illnesses are often of an episodic nature, there will be instances that require acute and quick crisis response services;
(5)
[Repealed.]
(6)
"Detention" means any confinement of a person against his or her wishes and begins either:
(A)
When a person is involuntarily brought to a receiving facility or program or to a hospital;
(B)
When, pursuant to §
20-47-209(a)
, the person appears for the initial hearing; or
(C)
When a person on a voluntary status in a receiving facility or program or a hospital requests to leave pursuant to §
20-47-204(3)
;
(7)
[Repealed.]
(8)
"Hospital" means the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, or any private hospital with a fully trained psychiatrist on the active or consultant staff;
(9)
"Initial screening" means initial screening services conducted by a mental health professional provided by a receiving facility or program for individuals residing in the area served by the receiving facility or program who are being considered for referral to inpatient programs of the state mental health system to determine whether or not the individual meets the criteria for voluntary or involuntary admission and to determine whether or not appropriate alternatives to institutionalization are available. These screening services shall be available to community organizations, agencies, or private practitioners who are involved in making referrals to the state mental health system;
(10)
"Involuntary admission" means:
(A)
Court-ordered admission to twenty-four-hour inpatient health care;
(B)
Immediate confinement under §
20-47-210
; or
(C)
Admission to outpatient behavioral healthcare services furnished by a receiving facility or program or a behavioral healthcare clinic certified by the division;
(11)
"Least restrictive appropriate setting" for treatment means the available treatment setting which provides the person with the highest likelihood of improvement or cure and which is not more restrictive of the person's physical or social liberties than is necessary for the most effective treatment of the person and for adequate protection against any dangers which the person poses to himself or herself or others;
(12)
(A)
"Mental illness" means a substantial impairment of emotional processes, the ability to exercise conscious control of one's actions, or the ability to perceive reality or to reason, when the impairment is manifested by instances of extremely abnormal behavior or extremely faulty perceptions.
(B)
Mental illness does not include impairment solely caused by:
(i)
Epilepsy;
(ii)
Intellectual or other developmental disability;
(iii)
Continuous or noncontinuous periods of intoxication caused by substances such as alcohol or drugs; or
(iv)
Dependence upon or addiction to any substance such as alcohol or drugs;
(13)
"Physician" means a medical doctor licensed to practice in Arkansas;
(14)
"Psychosurgery" means those operations currently referred to as lobotomy, psychiatric surgery, and behavioral surgery and all other forms of brain surgery if the surgery is performed for the purpose of the following:
(A)
Modification or control of thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior rather than the treatment of a known and diagnosed physical disease of the brain;
(B)
Modification of normal brain function or normal brain tissue in order to control thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior; or
(C)
Treatment of abnormal brain function or abnormal brain tissue in order to modify thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior when the abnormality is not an established cause of those thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior;
(15)
"Receiving facility or program" means an inpatient or outpatient treatment facility or program which is designated within each geographic area of the state by the Deputy Director of the Division of Aging, Adult, and Behavioral Health Services of the Department of Human Services to accept the responsibility for care, custody, and treatment of persons involuntarily admitted to the state mental health system;
(16)
(A)
"Resides" means a person's ongoing physical presence in the state together with indications that the person's presence in the state is something other than merely transitory.
(B)
"Resides" includes a temporary absence from the state or temporary physical presence in a city that adjoins the Arkansas state line or is separated only by a navigable river from an Arkansas city that adjoins the Arkansas state line;
(17)
(A)
"Restraint" means any manual method, physical or mechanical device, material, or equipment that immobilizes a person or reduces the ability of a person to move his or her arms, legs, body, or head freely.
(B)
"Restraint" does not include devices such as orthopedically prescribed devices, surgical dressings or bandages, protective helmets, or other methods that involve the physical holding of a person for the purpose of protecting the person from falling or to permit the person to participate in activities without the risk of physical harm to himself or herself;
(18)
"State mental health system" means the Arkansas State Hospital and any other facility or program licensed or certified by the division;
(19)
"State or local authority" means a state or local government authority or agency or a representative of a state or local government authority or agency acting in an official capacity;
(20)
"Treatment" means those psychological, educational, social, chemical, medical, somatic, or other techniques designed to bring about rehabilitation of persons with mental illness. Treatment may be provided in inpatient and outpatient settings; and
(21)
"Treatment plan" means an individualized written document developed by the treatment staff of the hospital or receiving facility or program which includes the following:
(A)
A substantiated diagnosis in the terminology of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders;
(B)
Short-term and long-term treatment goals;
(C)
Treatment programs, facilities, and activities to be utilized to achieve the treatment goals; and
(D)
Methods for periodic review and revision of the treatment plan.
Amended by Act 2019, No. 1035,§ 15, eff. 7/24/2019.
Amended by Act 2019, No. 389,§ 56, eff. 7/24/2019.
Amended by Act 2019, No. 389,§ 55, eff. 7/24/2019.
Amended by Act 2017, No. 913,§ 79, eff. 8/1/2017.
Amended by Act 2017, No. 913,§ 78, eff. 8/1/2017.
Amended by Act 2017, No. 913,§ 77, eff. 8/1/2017.
Amended by Act 2017, No. 913,§ 76, eff. 8/1/2017.
Amended by Act 2017, No. 913,§ 75, eff. 8/1/2017.
Amended by Act 2017, No. 913,§ 74, eff. 8/1/2017.
Amended by Act 2013, No. 573,§ 1, eff. 8/16/2013.
Acts 1989, No. 861, § 1; 1993, No. 410, § 1; 2003, No. 1473, § 41; 2003, No. 1789, § 1; 2007, No. 636, § 3; 2011, No. 823, § 1.