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Terms Used In Louisiana Children's Code 1469

  • Diagnosis: means the art and science of determining the presence of disease in an individual and distinguishing one disease from another. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
  • Discharge: means the full or conditional release from a treatment facility of any minor admitted or otherwise detained under this Title. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
  • Formal voluntary admission: means the admission of a minor suffering from mental illness or substance abuse desiring admission to a treatment facility for diagnosis or treatment of such condition, or both, who may be formally admitted upon his written request. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
  • Patient: means any person detained and taken care of as a person with mental illness or person suffering from substance abuse. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
  • Substance abuse: means the condition of a person who uses narcotic, stimulant, depressant, soporific, tranquilizing, or hallucinogenic drugs or alcohol to the extent that it renders the person dangerous to himself or others or renders the person gravely disabled. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
  • 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 Children's Code 1404
  • Treatment facility: means any public or private hospital, retreat, institution, mental health center, or facility licensed by the state of Louisiana in which any mentally ill minor or minor suffering from substance abuse is received or detained as a patient except a facility under the control or supervision of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections unless otherwise provided in Title VIII of this Code. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404

A.  Any minor with mental illness or minor suffering from substance abuse who is sixteen years old or older and who desires admission to a treatment facility for diagnosis or treatment of a psychiatric disorder or substance abuse and who is deemed suitable for formal voluntary admission by the admitting physician may be so admitted upon his written request.

B.  A minor patient admitted under the provisions of this Article shall not be detained in the treatment facility for longer than seventy-two hours after making a valid written request for discharge to the director of the treatment facility unless an emergency certificate is executed pursuant to Article 1422 or unless judicial commitment is instituted pursuant to Chapter 9 of this Title.

Acts 1991, No. 235, §14, eff. Jan. 1, 1992; Acts 2014, No. 811, §33, eff. June 23, 2014.