Definitions

1. "Abuse" includes mental, physical, sexual, and verbal abuse. Mental abuse includes humiliation, harassment, threats of punishment, or deprivation. Physical abuse includes hitting, slapping, pinching, and kicking. It also includes controlling behavior through corporal punishment. Sexual abuse includes sexual harassment, sexual coercion, sexual contact, or sexual assault. Verbal abuse includes any use of oral, written, or gestured language that includes disparaging and derogatory terms to residents or their families, or within their hearing distance, to describe residents, regardless of their age, ability to comprehend, or disability. 2. "Administrator" means the individual person who is in general administrative charge of the facility. 3. "Autism" has the same meaning as in North Dakota Century Code chapter 23-09.4. 4. "Children with autism" means individuals up to the age of twenty-two who have a medical diagnosis of autism or autistic-like characteristics. 5. "Direct supervision" means the provision of guidance by a superior who is on the premises, for the accomplishment of an assigned task. 6. "Mental health professional" means: a. A psychologist with at least a master's degree who has been either licensed or approved for exemption by the North Dakota board of psychology examiners. b. A social worker with a master's degree in social work from an accredited program. c. A registered nurse with a master's degree in psychiatric nursing from an accredited program. d. A registered nurse with a minimum of two years of psychiatric clinical experience under the supervision of a registered nurse as identified in subsection 3. 7. "Neglect" includes failure to carry out resident services as directed or ordered by the physician or other authorized personnel in the facility, failure to give proper attention to facility residents, or failure to carry out services for residents of the facility as through careless oversight. 8. "Resident" means an individual up to the age of twenty-two who lives and receives services in a residential care facility for children with autism.