MARVIN MANDEL, Governor                           2899

SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act
shall take effect July 1, 1975.

Approved May 15, 1975.

CHAPTER 620

(Senate Bill 958)

AN ACT concerning

Mental Hygiene — Release of Patients

FOR the purpose of providing guidelines for the release
of patients from mental hygiene facilities; and
generally relating to release from mental hygiene
facilities.

BY repealing and re-enacting, with amendments,

Article 59 - Mental Hygiene

Section 18(a) and (b)

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1972 Replacement Volume and 1974 Supplement)

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That Sections 18(a) and (b) of Article 59 -
Rental Hygiene, of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1972
Replacement Volume and 1974 Supplement) be and they are
hereby repealed and re—enacted, with amendments, to read
as follows:

Article 59 — Mental Hygiene

18.

(a) At the direction of the Commissioner, his
authorized representative, or the superintendent of any
facility, any patient not detained pursuant to the
provisions of §§ 23, 24 or 27 of this article, [[may]]
SHALL be released from any facility, if, in the judgment
of such official [,the patient is not mentally
disordered; or if mentally disordered, is not, for the
protection of himself or others in need of inpatient
medical care or treatment]: (1) THE PATIENT IS NOT
MENTALLY DISORDERED; OR (2) THE PATIENT, IF MENTALLY
DISORDERED, IS NOT IN NEED OF INPATIENT MEDICAL CARE OR
TREATMENT FOR THE PROTECTION OF HIMSELF AND OTHERS; AND
(3) THE PATIENT, IF RELEASED, WOULD NOT CONSTITUTE A