Louisiana Revised Statutes 28:50 – Declaration of policy
Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes 28:50
- Addictive disorder: is a primary, chronic neurobiologic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 28:2
- Patient: means any person detained and taken care of as a person who has a mental illness or person who is suffering from a substance-related or addictive disorder. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 28:2
- person: includes a body of persons, whether incorporated or not. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 1:10
- Treatment: means an active effort to accomplish an improvement in the mental condition or behavior of a patient or to prevent deterioration in his condition or behavior. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 28:2
The underlying policy of this Chapter is as follows:
(1) That persons who have a mental illness and persons suffering from a substance-related or addictive disorder be encouraged to seek voluntary treatment.
(2) That any involuntary treatment or evaluation be accomplished in a setting which is medically appropriate, most likely to facilitate proper care and treatment that will return the patient to the community as soon as possible, and is the least restrictive of the patient’s liberty.
(3) That continuity of care for persons who have a mental illness and persons suffering from a substance-related or addictive disorder be provided.
(4) That mental health and substance-related and addictive disorder treatment services be delivered as near to the place of residence of the person receiving such services as is reasonably possible and medically appropriate.
(5) That individual rights of patients be safeguarded.
(6) That no person solely as a result of mental illness, substance-related or addictive disorder, or incapacitation by alcohol shall be confined in any jail, prison, correctional facility, or criminal detention center. This shall not apply to persons arrested, charged, or convicted under Title 14 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950.
(7) That no person shall be denied treatment solely because he has withdrawn from treatment against medical advice on a prior occasion or because he has relapsed after an earlier treatment.
Added by Acts 1954, No. 701, §2. Amended by Acts 1966, No. 482, §1; Acts 1968, No. 238, §1; Acts 1977, No. 714, §1; Acts 1979, No. 767, §1; Acts 2014, No. 811, §14, eff. June 23, 2014; Acts 2017, No. 369, §2.