(45 ILCS 40/1) (from Ch. 91 1/2, par. 50-1)
Sec. 1.
The Interstate Compact on Mental Health is approved and adopted as
law in this State and entered into by this State with all other states, as
defined in paragraph (h) of Article II of such Compact, which legally join
therein.
The form and substance of such Compact is substantially as follows:
The contracting States solemnly agree that:
ARTICLE I
The party states find that the proper and expeditious treatment of the
mentally ill and mentally deficient can be facilitated by cooperative
action, to the benefit of the patients, their families, and society as a
whole. Further, the party states find that the necessity of and
desirability for furnishing such care and treatment bears no primary
relation to the residence or citizenship of the patient but that, on the
contrary, the controlling factors of community safety and humanitarianism
require that facilities and services be made available for all who are in
need of them. Consequently, it is the purpose of this compact and of the
party states to provide the necessary legal basis for the
institutionalization or other appropriate care and treatment of the
mentally ill and mentally deficient under a system that recognizes the
paramount importance of patient welfare and to establish the
responsibilities of the party states in terms of such welfare.
ARTICLE II
As used in this compact:
(a) "Sending state" shall mean a party state from which a patient is
transported pursuant to the provisions of the compact or from which it is
contemplated that a patient may be so sent.
(b) "Receiving state" shall mean a party state to which a patient is
transported pursuant to the provisions of the compact or to which it is
contemplated that a patient may be so sent.
(c) "Institution" shall mean any hospital or other facility maintained
by a party state or political subdivision thereof for the care and
treatment of mental illness or mental deficiency.
(d) "Patient" shall mean any person subject to or eligible as determined
by the laws of the sending state, for institutionalization or other care,
treatment, or supervision pursuant to the provisions of this compact.
(e) "After-care" shall mean care, treatment and services provided a
patient, as defined herein, on convalescent status or conditional release.
(f) "Mental illness" shall mean mental disease to such extent that a
person so afflicted requires care and treatment for his own welfare, or the
welfare of others, or of the community.
(g) "Mental deficiency" shall mean mental deficiency as defined by
appropriate clinical authorities to such extent that a person so afflicted
is incapable of managing himself and his affairs, but shall not include
mental illness as defined herein.
(h) "State" shall mean any state, territory or possession of the United
States, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
ARTICLE III
(a) Whenever a person physically present in any party state shall be in
need of institutionalization by reason of mental illness or mental
deficiency, he shall be eligible for care and treatment in an institution
in that state irrespective of his residence, settlement or citizenship
qualifications.
(b) The provisions of paragraph (a) of this article to the contrary
notwithstanding, any patient may be transferred to an institution in
another state whenever there are factors based upon clinical determinations
indicating that the care and treatment of the patient would be facilitated
or improved thereby. Any such institutionalization may be for the entire
period of care and treatment or for any portion or portions thereof. The
factors referred to in this paragraph shall include the patient's full
record with due regard for the location of the patient's family, character
of the illness and probable duration thereof, and such other factors as
shall be considered appropriate.
(c) No state shall be obliged to receive any patient pursuant to the
provisions of paragraph (b) of this article unless the sending state has
given advance notice of its intention to send the patient; furnished all
available medical and other pertinent records concerning the patient; given
the qualified medical or other appropriate clinical authorities of the
receiving state an opportunity to examine the patient if such authorities
so wish; and unless the receiving state shall agree to accept the patient.
(d) In the event that the laws of the receiving state establish a system
of priorities for the admission of patients, an interstate patient under
this compact shall receive the same priority as a local patient and shall
be taken in the same order and at the same time that he would be taken if
he were a local patient.
(e) Pursuant to this compact, the determination as to the suitable place
of institutionalization for a patient may be reviewed at any time and such
further transfer of the patient may be made as seems likely to be in the
best interest of the patient.
ARTICLE IV
(a) Whenever, pursuant to the laws of the state in which a patient is
physically present, it shall be determined that the patient should receive
aftercare or supervision, such care or supervision may be provided in a
receiving state. If the medical or other appropriate clinical authorities
having responsibility for the care and treatment of the patient in the
sending state shall have reason to believe that after-care in another state
would be in the best interest of the patient and would not jeopardize the
public safety, they shall request the appropriate authorities in the
receiving state to investigate the desirability of affording the patient
such aftercare in the receiving state, and such investigation shall be made
with all reasonable speed. The request for investigation shall be
accompanied by complete information concerning the patient's intended place
of residence and the identity of the person in whose charge it is proposed
to place the patient, the complete medical history of the patient, and such
other documents as may be pertinent.
(b) If the medical or other appropriate clinical authorities having
responsibility for the care and treatment of the patient in the sending
state and the appropriate authorities in the receiving state find that the
best interest of the patient would be served thereby, and if the public
safety would not be jeopardized thereby, the patient may receive after-care
or supervision in the receiving state.
(c) In supervision, treating, or caring for a patient on after-care
pursuant to the terms of this article, a receiving state shall employ the
same standards of visitation, examination, care, and treatment that it
employs for similar local patients.
ARTICLE V
Whenever a dangerous or potentially dangerous patient escapes from an
institution in any party state, that state shall promptly notify all
appropriate authorities within and without the jurisdiction of the escape
in a manner reasonably calculated to facilitate the speedy apprehension of
the escapee. Immediately upon the apprehension and identification of any
such dangerous or potentially dangerous patient, he shall be detained in
the state where found pending disposition in accordance with law.
ARTICLE VI
The duly accredited officers of any state party to this compact upon the
establishment of their authority and the identity of the patient, shall be
permitted to transport any patient being moved pursuant to this compact
through any and all states party to this compact, without interference.
ARTICLE VII
(a) No person shall be deemed a patient of more than one institution at
any given time. Completion of transfer of any patient to an institution in
a receiving state shall have the effect of making the person a patient of
the institution in the receiving state.
(b) The sending state shall pay all costs of and incidental to the
transportation of any patient pursuant to this compact, but any two or more
party states may, by making a specific agreement for that purpose, arrange
for a different allocation of costs as among themselves.
(c) No provision of this compact shall be construed to alter or affect
any internal relationships among the departments, agencies and officers of
and in the government of a party state, or between a party state and its
subdivisions, as to the payment of costs, or responsibilities therefor.
(d) Nothing in this compact shall be construed to prevent any party
state or subdivision thereof from asserting any right against any person,
agency or other entity in regard to costs for which such party state or
subdivision thereof may be responsible pursuant to any provision of this
compact.
(e) Nothing in this compact shall be construed to invalidate any
reciprocal agreement between a party state and a non-party state relating
to institutionalization, care or treatment of the mentally ill or mentally
deficient, or any statutory authority pursuant to which such agreements may
be made.
ARTICLE VIII
(a) Nothing in this compact shall be construed to abridge, diminish, or
in any way impair the rights, duties, and responsibilities of any patient's
guardian on his own behalf or in respect of any patient for whom he may
serve, except that where the transfer of any patient to another
jurisdiction makes advisable the appointment of a supplemental or
substitute guardian, any court of competent jurisdiction in the receiving
state may make such supplemental or substitute appointment and the court
which appointed the previous guardian shall upon being duly advised of the
new appointment, and upon the satisfactory completion of such accounting
and other acts as such court may by law require, relieve the previous
guardian of power and responsibility to whatever extent shall be
appropriate in the circumstances; provided, however, that in the case of
any patient having settlement in the sending state, the court of competent
jurisdiction in the sending state shall have the sole discretion to relieve
a guardian appointed by it or continue his power and responsibility,
whichever it shall deem advisable. The court in the receiving state may, in
its discretion, confirm or reappoint the person or persons previously
serving as guardian in the sending state in lieu of making a supplemental
or substitute appointment.
(b) The term "guardian" as used in paragraph (a) of this article shall
include any guardian, trustee, legal committee, conservator, or other
person or agency however denominated who is charged by law with power to
act for or responsibility for the person or property of a patient.
ARTICLE IX
(a) No provision of this compact except Article V shall apply to any
person institutionalized while under sentence in a penal or correctional
institution or while subject to trial on a criminal charge, or whose
institutionalization is due to the commission of an offense for which, in
the absence of mental illness or mental deficiency, such person would be
subject to incarceration in a penal or correctional institution.
(b) To every extent possible, it shall be the policy of states party to
this compact that no patient shall be placed or detained in any prison,
jail or lockup, but such patient shall, with all expedition, be taken to a
suitable institutional facility for mental illness or mental deficiency.
ARTICLE X
(a) Each party state shall appoint a "compact administrator" who, on
behalf of his state, shall act as general coordinator of activities under
the compact in his state and who shall receive copies of all reports,
correspondence, and other documents relating to any patient processed under
the compact by his state either in the capacity of sending or receiving
state. The compact administrator or his duly designated representative
shall be the official with whom other party states shall deal in any matter
relating to the compact or any patient processed thereunder.
(b) The compact administrators of the respective party states shall have
power to promulgate reasonable rules and regulations to carry out more
effectively the terms and provisions of this compact.
ARTICLE XI
The duly constituted administrative authorities of any 2 or more party
states may enter into supplementary agreements for the provision of any
service or facility or for the maintenance of any institution on a joint or
cooperative basis whenever the states concerned shall find that such
agreements will improve services, facilities, or institutional care and
treatment in the fields of mental illness or mental deficiency. No such
supplementary agreement shall be construed so as to relieve any party state
of any obligation which it otherwise would have under other provisions of
this compact.
ARTICLE XII
This compact shall enter into full force and effect as to any state when
enacted by it into law and such state shall thereafter be a party thereto
with any and all states legally joining therein.
ARTICLE XIII
(a) A state party to this compact may withdraw therefrom by enacting a
statute repealing the same. Such withdrawal shall take effect one year
after notice thereof has been communicated officially and in writing to the
governors and compact administrators of all other party states. However,
the withdrawal of any state shall not change the status of any patient who
has been sent to said state or sent out of said state pursuant to the
provisions of the compact.
(b) Withdrawal from any agreement permitted by Article VII (b) as to
costs or from any supplementary agreement made pursuant to Article XI shall
be in accordance with the terms of such agreement.
ARTICLE XIV
This compact shall be liberally construed so as to effectuate the
purposes thereof. The provisions of this compact shall be severable and if
any phrase, clause, sentence or provision of this compact is declared to be
contrary to the constitution of any party state or of the United States or
the applicability thereof to any government, agency, person or circumstance
is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of this compact and the
applicability thereof to any government, agency, person or circumstance
shall not be affected thereby. If this compact shall be held contrary to
the constitution of any state party thereto, the compact shall remain in
full force and effect as to the remaining states and in full force and
effect as to the state affected as to all severable matters.
(Source: Laws 1965, p. 1809.)
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