2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-FOUR - Health and Sanitation (§§ 1 — 15010) › PART VIII - Mental Health (§§ 4001-6151 — 6184) › Chapter 201A - Mental Health Code of 2000 (§§ 6152 — 6166g) › Subchapter IV - Mental Health Care System for Adults (§§ 6155 — 6155v) › § 6155n - Petition for order to extend involuntary admission

When necessary, the court may order an extension for hospitalization, which shall not exceed fifteen (15) additional days. To that effect, the director of the mental health institution or his/her representative, per ser or by request from the person’s family member or legal guardian, shall file in court a petition for order to extend involuntary admission. Said petition shall be accompanied by a second certification issued by a psychiatrist along with the inter or multidisciplinary team. In those cases in which the adult is receiving detoxification services, this second certification may be issued by a physician, along with an inter- or multidisciplinary team. The petition shall be filed in court up to three (3) days before the end of the initial period of fifteen (15) days. Within forty-eight (48) hours upon filing the petition for order to extend involuntary admission, the court, after holding hearings, shall determine if the second hospitalization period requested is appropriate. While this process is in progress, the adult shall remain hospitalized.
This certification shall include the following:
(a) Evidence of the design and implementation of the individualized treatment, recovery and rehabilitation plan of the inter- or multidisciplinary team.
(b) A statement that the psychiatrist or the physician, as applicable, along with the inter- or multidisciplinary team, re-evaluated the adult according to the plan and determined the need for the adult to continue receiving involuntary services.
(c) A detailed description of the revised individualized treatment, recovery and rehabilitation plan, that includes a reasonable prognosis of the benefits it is expected for the adult receive during the continuation of the involuntary admission.
(d) Identification and processing by the case handler of the resources used to place the patient in the level of care necessary and convenient for his/her condition, once he/she has fulfilled the purposes of the treatment in the hospital.
(e) A release plan prepared by the psychiatrist in consultation with the inter- or multidisciplinary team, for the case handler to follow-up, a copy of which shall be given to the patient or to his/her legal guardian, if any.
(f) Name and professional circumstances of the inter- or multidisciplinary team that intervenes in the certification.
If upon expiration of the initial fifteen (15)-day term the petition for order to extend involuntary admission and its corresponding certification are not filed in court on time, the institution shall then proceed to immediately release the adult and it shall so notify to the court.
If in the hearing, the court finds that the adult shall continue to receive involuntary treatment services, it may order an extension of the involuntary hospitalization for a term not to exceed fifteen (15) days.
Within twenty-four (24) hours after the issuance of the petition for order to extend involuntary admission, a copy of the second certification and of the order issued by the court shall be given to the adult, his/her family member in charge, legal guardian, attorney or representative, as the case may be.
History —Oct. 2, 2000, No. 408, § 4.15, eff. 90 days after Oct. 2, 2000.