West Virginia Code of State Rules › Agency 64 - Health › Title 64 - LEGISLATIVE RULE WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN RESOURCES › Series 64-59 - Patient Rights At State-Operated Mental Health facilities › Section 64-59-5 - Patients' Rights Generally

Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 28, July 12, 2024
5.1. Persons with behavioral health problems
				are more likely to have their human and civil rights denied because of their
				condition. Consequently, special attention and effort are required to assure
				that these human and civil rights are exercised and protected in all behavioral
				health services.
5.2. No
				Discrimination. All mental health facilities shall make available all services
				to persons in need without discrimination because of race, creed, color, sex,
				age, national origin, marital status, lack of wealth, disability, or duration
				of residence.
5.3. Civil Rights of
				Patients. Every patient served by any facility operated by the Department shall
				be permitted to exercise all of his or her civil rights, including but not
				limited to: civil service status and appointment; the right to register and
				vote at elections; the right to acquire and dispose of property; the right to
				execute instruments or rights relating to the granting, forfeiture or denial of
				a license, permit, privilege or benefit pursuant to any law; the right to enter
				into contractual relationships, to marry or to obtain a divorce; or the right
				to hold a professional, occupational or vehicle operator's licenses, unless he
				or she has been appointed a legal representative and the court has made a
				specific finding that the patient is incompetent to exercise the specific right
				or category of rights.
5.4.
				Responsibility of Administrator. It is the responsibility of the mental health
				facility's administrator to assure that each patient is informed of his or her
				rights and to make all necessary arrangements to allow the patient to exercise
				his or her rights.
5.5. Patients'
				Rights in A Facility or Group Setting Generally. Patients shall be housed with
				other patients of similar age and activity levels unless specific reasons such
				as the need to protecta patient with a low level of adaptive skills and ability
				for self-defense are noted in the treatment plan.
5.6. Right to Least Restrictive Residential
				Setting. The patient has the right to access treatment in the least restrictive
				setting. The goal of treatment for a patient shall be to address needs so as to
				permit the patient to be in the least restrictive setting.
5.7. Right of Privacy. A patient has a right
				to as much privacy as the area in which he or she is residing will allow, and
				the right to move about freely unless his or her safety is threatened or
				otherwise clinically contrain dicated.
5.8. No Deprivation of Rights as Punishment.
				No patient can be deprived of a right provided by law or regulation as
				punishment. No patient may be deprived of a right unless otherwise clinically
				indicated and, if so, then only for so long as is necessary to permit
				correction of the situation, behavior, or clinical needs of the
				patient.
5.9. Every patient, upon
				his or her admission to a mental health facility, and at any later time upon
				request, shall be given a summary of the rights afforded by this rule and as
				required by
				42 C.F.R. §
										482.13. A copy of this rule shall be posted
				in a prominent public place in each facility. Further, at least annually, the
				administrator or his or her designee shall confer with the patient advocates
				and collaboratively develop a brief summary of patient rights for distribution
				to patients.