(a) A declaration becomes effective when it is signed by the declarant and all witnesses and remains valid until revoked or expired. The physician or provider shall act in accordance with an operative declaration when the service recipient has been found to be incapable of making mental health treatment decisions. The physician or provider shall continue to obtain the service recipient’s informed consent to all mental health treatment decisions if the service recipient is capable of providing informed consent or refusal.
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 33-6-1005

  • Consent: means voluntary agreement to what is reasonably well understood regardless of how the agreement is expressed. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Service recipient: means a person who is receiving service, has applied for service, or for whom someone has applied for or proposed service because the person has mental illness or serious emotional disturbance. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
  • signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b) Upon being presented with a declaration, a physician or other provider shall make the declaration a part of the service recipient’s medical record. When acting under authority of a declaration, a physician or provider shall comply with it to the fullest extent possible.
(c) If the physician or other provider is unwilling at any time to comply with the declaration for mental health treatment, the physician or provider may withdraw from providing treatment consistent with the exercise of independent medical judgment and shall promptly notify the service recipient and document the notification in the service recipient’s medical record. The physician or other provider shall arrange for the prompt and orderly transfer of the patient to the care of others when as a matter of conscience the health care provider cannot implement the decisions as provided in the declaration for mental health treatment.
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