By: West, LaMantia S.B. No. 2287
(In the Senate - Filed March 10, 2023; March 22, 2023, read
first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
May 15, 2023, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 15, 2023,
sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 2287 By: Flores
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the authority of a peace officer to apprehend a person
for emergency detention and the authority of certain facilities and
physicians to temporarily detain a person with mental illness.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. The heading to Subchapter A, Chapter 573, Health
and Safety Code, is amended to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER A. APPREHENSION, [BY PEACE OFFICER OR] TRANSPORTATION,
OR DETENTION WITHOUT JUDGE'S OR MAGISTRATE'S ORDER [FOR EMERGENCY
DETENTION BY GUARDIAN]
SECTION 2. Section 573.001(a), Health and Safety Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(a) A peace officer, without a warrant, may take a person
into custody, regardless of the age or location of the person, if
the officer:
(1) has reason to believe and does believe that:
(A) the person is a person with mental illness;
and
(B) because of that mental illness there is a
substantial risk of serious harm to the person or to others unless
the person is immediately restrained; and
(2) believes that there is not sufficient time to
obtain a warrant before taking the person into custody.
SECTION 3. Subchapter A, Chapter 573, Health and Safety
Code, is amended by adding Section 573.006 to read as follows:
Sec. 573.006. TEMPORARY DETENTION IN CERTAIN FACILITIES.
(a) In this section, "facility" means:
(1) an inpatient mental health facility other than a
community center, a facility operated by or under contract with a
community center, an entity that the executive commissioner
designates to provide mental health services, a local mental health
authority, or a facility operated by or under contract with a local
mental health authority, unless the facility is licensed under
Chapter 577;
(2) a hospital, or the emergency department of a
hospital, licensed under Chapter 241; and
(3) a freestanding emergency medical care facility
licensed under Chapter 254.
(b) The governing body of a facility may adopt and implement
a written policy that provides for the facility or a physician at
the facility to detain a person who voluntarily requested treatment
from the facility or who lacks the capacity to consent to treatment,
as provided by this section, if:
(1) the person expresses a desire to leave the
facility or attempts to leave the facility before the examination
or treatment is completed; and
(2) a physician at the facility:
(A) has reason to believe and does believe that:
(i) the person has a mental illness; and
(ii) because of that mental illness there
is a substantial risk of serious harm to the person or to others
unless the person is immediately restrained; and
(B) believes that there is not sufficient time to
file an application for emergency detention or for an order of
protective custody.
(c) A policy adopted and implemented by a facility under
this section may not allow the facility or a physician at the
facility to detain a person who has been transported to the facility
for emergency detention under this chapter.
(d) A policy adopted and implemented by a facility under
this section must require:
(1) the facility staff or the physician who intends to
detain the person under the policy to notify the person of that
intention;
(2) a physician to document a decision by the facility
or the physician to detain a person under the policy and to place a
notice of detention in the person's medical record that contains
the same information as required in a peace officer's notification
of detention under Section 573.002; and
(3) the period of a person's detention under the policy
to be less than four hours following the time the person first
expressed a desire to leave, or attempted to leave, the facility,
and the facility or physician to release the person not later than
the end of the four-hour period unless the facility staff or
physician arranges for a peace officer to take the person into
custody under Section 573.001 or an order of protective custody is
issued.
(e) Detention of a person under a policy adopted and
implemented by a facility under this section is not considered
involuntary psychiatric hospitalization for purposes of Section
411.172(e), Government Code.
(f) A physician, person, or facility that detains or does
not detain a person under a policy adopted and implemented by a
facility under this section and that acts in good faith and without
malice is not civilly or criminally liable for that action.
(g) A facility is not civilly or criminally liable for the
decision of the governing body of the facility to adopt or not to
adopt a policy under this section.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.
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