Mississippi Administrative Code › Title 24 - Mental Health › Part 2 - Operational Standards for Mental Health, Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Community Service Providers › Chapter 29 - Community Living Services for Children/Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance › Rule 24-2-29.4 - Community Living Handbook

Current through June 25, 2024
A. In addition to
				information contained in the agency provider's policies and procedures manual,
				Therapeutic Group Home providers must develop a handbook which includes all
				policies and procedures for provision of Therapeutic Group Home Services.
				Handbooks are to be provided to the person/parent(s)/legal representative(s)
				during orientation. The Community Living Handbook must be readily available for
				review by employees and must be updated as needed.
B. All agency providers of Therapeutic Group
				Home Services must document that each person (and/or parent[s]/legal
				representative[s]) is provided with a handbook and orientation on the day of
				admission. The agency provider must document the review of the handbook with
				the person annually (if applicable to the service).
C. All Therapeutic Group Home providers must
				have a written plan for soliciting input from people about all sections of the
				handbook.
D. The service and
				site-specific handbook must be written in a person-first, person-friendly
				manner that can be readily understood by the person/parent(s)/legal
				representative(s).
E. Therapeutic
				Group Home providers must have a written plan for providing the handbook
				information in a person's language of choice when necessary if English is not
				the person's primary language.
F.
				The Community Living Handbook may not be a book of rules.
G. The handbook may not include any rules or
				restrictions that infringe on or limit the person's ability to live in the
				least restricted environment possible or that limit or restrict the rights of
				people receiving services specified in Chapter 14 of these standards.
H. At a minimum, the Community Living
				Handbook must address the following:
1. A
				person-friendly, person-first definition and description of the community
				living service being provided;
2.
				The philosophy, purpose and overall goals of the service, to include but are
				not limited to:
(a) Methods for accomplishing
				stated goals and objectives;
(b)
				Expected results/outcomes; and,
(c)
				Methods to evaluate expected results/outcomes.
3. A description of how the Therapeutic Group
				Home service addresses the following items, to include but not limited to:
(a) Visitation guidelines (applying to
				family, significant others, friends and other visitors) that are appropriate to
				Therapeutic Group Home services;
(1) Person's
				right to define his/her family and support systems for visitation purposes
				unless clinically/socially contraindicated;
(2) All actions regarding visitors
				(restrictions, defining individual and family support systems, etc.) must be
				documented in the person's record;
(3) Any restrictions on visitors must be
				reviewed whenever there is an identified need or request by the person to
				change any of the restrictions;
(4)
				Visitation rights must not be withheld as punishment and may not be limited in
				ways that unreasonably infringe on the person's stated rights; and,
(5) To the greatest extent possible, people
				should have visitors of their choosing at any time.
(b) Daily private communication (phone, mail,
				email, etc.) without hindrance unless clinically contraindicated:
(1) Any restrictions on private telephone use
				must be reviewed daily;
(2) All
				actions regarding restrictions on outside communication must be documented in
				the person's record; and,
(3)
				Communication rights must not be withheld as punishment and may not be limited
				in ways that unreasonably infringe on the person's stated rights.
(c) Dating
(d) Off-site activities
(e) Household tasks
(f) Curfew
(g) Respecting the rights of other people's
				privacy, safety, health and choices.
4. Policy regarding the search of the
				person's room, person and/or possessions, to include but not limited to:
(a) Circumstances in which a search may
				occur;
(b) Employees designated to
				authorize searches;
(c)
				Documentation of searches; and,
(d)
				Consequences of discovery of prohibited items.
5. Policy regarding screening for
				prohibited/illegal substances, to include but not limited to:
(a) Circumstances in which screens may
				occur;
(b) Employees designated to
				authorize screening;
(c)
				Documentation of screening;
(d)
				Consequences of positive screening of prohibited substances;
(e) Consequences of refusing to submit to a
				screening; and,
(f) Process for
				people to report in a confidential manner the use of prohibited substances
				prior to being screened.