New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 10 - HUMAN SERVICES › Chapter 37 - COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ACT › Subchapter 5 - PROGRAM ELEMENT REQUIREMENTS › Section 10:37-5.2 - Target populations

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
(a) The goal of the
				mental health system is to provide comprehensive services to everyone in need.
				However, target populations have been established to assure that those who are
				most in need, and/or have traditionally been underserved, receive a reasonable
				level of service. These priorities are not to be construed as totally
				exclusionary. Wherever the phrase "target populations" is cited in this
				chapter, the phrase refers to the populations and priority order below.
				State-funded Program Elements shall serve retarded and other handicapped
				individuals as they would any other person who falls within the following
				priority groups.
(b) State target
				populations:
1. Target Group I, indicating a
				person's history and/or serious risk of hospitalization, shall be given first
				priority in all mental health Program Elements governed by this chapter, except
				as indicated in Articles II and III of this subchapter, describing Emergency
				and Screening Program Elements.
2.
				Subcategories of Target Group I do appear in order of State importance;
				however, levels of service appropriate locally for each target subcategory
				shall be arrived at through individual Service Area needs assessments and each
				County's mental health planning process, with final Division
				approval.
3. Target Groups I and II
				are not mutually exclusive. Target Group II describes specific demographic
				categories of people; when these individuals meet any of the criteria listed in
				Target Group I, they shall be prioritized above other people meeting Group I
				criteria. When services are delivered to non-Target Group I clients, these
				demographic groups shall also be prioritized.
4. Target Group I:
i. Adults and children currently in a
				State/County/local psychiatric hospital who could live in the community with
				appropriate services;
(1) "Local" psychiatric
				hospital shall mean a local inpatient program which has been determined by the
				Division as meeting the requirements of Article VII of this subchapter,
				regarding Inpatient Care (IPU). Such an IPU must be affiliated with the State
				and County hospitals and must serve the other target populations cited in this
				10:37-5.2.
ii. Adults and children in the community,
				with a history of State/County/local psychiatric hospitalization, who are in
				serious risk of rehospitalization;
(1)
				"Local" psychiatric hospital is defined in (b)4i(1) above.
iii. Adults and children in the community who
				are mentally and functionally impaired and in serious risk of psychiatric
				hospitalization.
(1) "Mentally impaired" in
				this context shall mean a person whose primary impairment is emotional,
				excluding those whose primary problem is a developmental disability,
				retardation, and/or organic brain syndrome. These exclusions shall not apply,
				however, to Emergency and Screening Service Program Elements, except where
				indicated in Article IV of this subchapter.
(2) "Functionally impaired" shall mean a
				person who is identified as having serious functional problems in personal,
				interpersonal, and/or social skill areas.
(3) "In serious risk" shall describe a person
				who is currently in crisis and/or is marginally functioning and, without
				intervention, will likely be hospitalized.
5. Target Group II:
i. Children (17 or younger) who are mentally,
				emotionally, and functionally impaired;
ii. Elderly (65 or older) who are mentally,
				emotionally, and functionally impaired;
iii. Minorities (black and/or hispanic or
				other minority groups identified in the County Plan) who are mentally,
				emotionally, and functionally impaired;
iv. Rural poor who are mentally, emotionally,
				and functionally impaired;
v. Urban
				poor who are mentally, emotionally, and functionally impaired;