HARRY HUGHES, Governor

3603

BY adding to

Article 59 - Mental Hygiene

Section 22 and 22A, to be under the amended subtitle

"Emergency Evaluations"
Annotated Code of Maryland
(1979 Replacement Volume and 1980 Supplement)

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That section(s) of the Annotated Code of Maryland
be repealed, amended, or enacted to read as follows:

Article 59 - Mental Hygiene

Emergency [Admissions] EVALUATIONS

[22.

(a) As used in this subtitle, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated unless a contrary meaning
is clearly intended from the context in which the term
appears.

(1)  "Emergency admissions" shall mean that
process by which an emergency admittee is admitted on an
emergency basis to an emergency facility as defined herein.

(2)  "Emergency treatment" means the treatment of
an emergency admittee under the provisions of this subtitle.

(3)  "Emergency facility" shall mean any facility
designated in writing by the Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene as an emergency facility, and shall include all
general hospitals with licensed emergency rooms unless
exempted by the Department in consultation with the local
health officer.

(4)  "Mental disorder" means the behavioral and
other symptoms which to lay petitioner initiating the
emergency admission process indicate a clear disturbance in
the mental functioning of another person, and to a physician
or certified psychologist conducting an examination indicate
one or more of the mental disorders described in the
"Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-Mental Disorders"
published periodically by the American Psychiatric
Association. The term shall not include mental retardation.

(5)  "Peace officer" means a sheriff. State
police officer, municipal or other local police officer.

(6)  "Emergency admittee" means a person who is
proposed for admission to an emergency facility, or a person
who has been admitted to an emergency facility pursuant to
this section.