30:4-24 General principles, applicability.

30:4-24. The provisions of Title 30 of the Revised Statutes shall govern the admission and commitment of persons with mental illness, tuberculosis, and developmental disabilities to the several institutions designated therefor and govern and control all phases of the relationship between such patients and such institutions including payments, maintenance, custody, treatment, parole, and discharge as though each provision of Title 30 of the Revised Statutes has been specifically enacted, unless otherwise specified in law, with relation to each institution, its board of managers and officials, and to all other officials, boards, and authorities.

Title 30 of the Revised Statutes is to be administered in accordance with the general principles laid down in this section, which are declared to be the public policy of this State that:

(1) adequate residential and nonresidential facilities be provided for the prompt and effective diagnosis, care, treatment, training and rehabilitation of individuals with diseases and disorders of the brain, mind, and nervous system, including the various forms of mental illness and developmental disability;

(2) such facilities be closely integrated with other community health, welfare, and social resources;

(3) the human dignity and the moral and constitutional rights of such individuals be upheld and protected by appropriate statutes;

(4) family and community ties and mutual responsibilities be reinforced;

(5) inasmuch as such mental disorders may in some cases substantially impair the individual's ability to guide the individual's actions in the individual's own best interests or with due regard for the rights of others, provision be made for the due process of law by which such an individual may be placed under protection, treatment, or restraint in the individual's own or the public interest;

(6) the primary responsibility for the costs of services provided to an individual rests with the individual and the individual's responsible relatives;

(7) it is in the public interest that facilities be available to all persons without limitation because of economic circumstances, and that extraordinary hardships to any individual or the individual's relatives which may result from severe or prolonged disability be mitigated;

(8) means and facilities be provided by the State for scientific studies directed toward expanding knowledge of the causes, prevention, control, management, and cure of diseases and disorders of the brain, mind, and nervous system; and

(9) as an intrinsic part of the program established by the State, provision be made for the instruction of professional and nonprofessional personnel in the skills required for the proper diagnosis, care, training, treatment, and rehabilitation of persons with impairments of the brain, mind, and nervous system, and for the pursuit of relevant research.

amended 1965, c.59, s.8; 1995, c.155, s.2; 2010, c.50, s.30; 2017, c.131, s.115.