N.M. Stat. § 32A-6A-4
Definitions.
As used in the Children's Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Act:
A. "aversive intervention" means any device or intervention, consequences or
procedure intended to cause pain or unpleasant sensations, including interventions
causing physical pain, tissue damage, physical illness or injury; electric shock; isolation;
forced exercise; withholding of food, water or sleep; humiliation; water mist; noxious
taste, smell or skin agents; and over-correction;
B. "behavioral health services" means a comprehensive array of professional and
ancillary services for the treatment, habilitation, prevention and identification of mental
illnesses, behavioral symptoms associated with developmental disabilities, substance
abuse disorders and trauma spectrum disorders;
C. "capacity" means a child's ability to:
(1)
understand and appreciate the nature and consequences of proposed
health care, including its significant benefits, risks and alternatives to proposed health
care; and
(2)
make and communicate an informed health care decision;
D. "chemical restraint" means a medication that is not standard treatment for the
patient's medical or psychiatric condition that is used to control behavior or to restrict a
patient's freedom of movement;
E. "child" means a person who is a minor;
F. "clinician" means a person whose licensure allows the person to make
independent clinical decisions, including a physician, licensed psychologist, psychiatric
nurse practitioner, licensed independent social worker, licensed marriage and family
therapist and licensed professional clinical counselor;
G. "continuum of services" means a comprehensive array of emergency, outpatient,
intermediate and inpatient services and care, including screening, early identification,
diagnostic evaluation, medical, psychiatric, psychological and social service care,
habilitation, education, training, vocational rehabilitation and career counseling;
H. "developmental disability" means a severe chronic disability that:
(1)
is attributable to a mental or physical impairment or a combination of
mental or physical impairments;
(2)
is manifested before a person reaches twenty-two years of age;
(3)
is expected to continue indefinitely;
(4)
results in substantial functional limitations in three or more of the following
areas of major life activities:
(a) self-care;
(b) receptive and expressive language;
(c) learning;
(d) mobility;
(e) self-direction;
(f) capacity for independent living; or
(g) economic self-sufficiency; and
(5)
reflects a person's need for a combination and sequence of special,
interdisciplinary or other supports and services that are of lifelong or extended duration
that are individually planned or coordinated;
I. "evaluation facility" means a community mental health or developmental disability
program, a medical facility having psychiatric or developmental disability services
available or, if none of the foregoing is reasonably available or appropriate, the office of
a licensed physician or a licensed psychologist, any of which shall be capable of
performing a mental status examination adequate to determine the need for appropriate
treatment, including possible involuntary treatment;
J. "family" means persons with a kinship relationship to a child, including the
relationship that exists between a child and a biological or adoptive parent, relative of
the child, a step-parent, a godparent, a member of the child's tribe or clan or an adult
with whom the child has a significant bond;
K. "habilitation" means services, including behavioral health services based on
evaluation of the child, that are aimed at assisting the child to prevent, correct or
ameliorate a developmental disability. The purpose of habilitation is to enable the child
to attain, maintain or regain maximum functioning or independence. "Habilitation"
includes programs of formal, structured education and treatment and rehabilitation
services;
L. "individual instruction" means a child's direction concerning a mental health
treatment decision for the child, made while the child has capacity and is fourteen years
of age or older, which is to be implemented when the child has been determined to lack
capacity;
M. "least restrictive means principle" means the conditions of habilitation or
treatment for the child, separately and in combination that:
(1)
are no more harsh, hazardous or intrusive than necessary to achieve
acceptable treatment objectives for the child;
(2)
involve no restrictions on physical movement and no requirement for
residential care, except as reasonably necessary for the administration of treatment or
for the protection of the child or others from physical injury; and
(3)
are conducted at the suitable available facility closest to the child's place
of residence;
N. "legal custodian" means a biological or adoptive parent of a child unless legal
custody has been vested in a person, department or agency and also includes a person
appointed by an unexpired power of attorney;
O. "licensed psychologist" means a person who holds a current license as a
psychologist issued by the New Mexico state board of psychologist examiners;
P. "likelihood of serious harm to self" means that it is more likely than not that in the
near future a child will attempt to commit suicide or will cause serious bodily harm to the
child by violent or other self-destructive means, as evidenced by behavior causing,
attempting or threatening such harm, which behavior gives rise to a reasonable fear of
such harm from the child;
Q. "likelihood of serious harm to others" means that it is more likely than not that in
the near future the child will inflict serious bodily harm on another person or commit a
criminal sexual offense, as evidenced by behavior causing, attempting or threatening
such harm, which behavior gives rise to a reasonable fear of such harm from the child;
R. "mechanical restraint" means any device or material attached or adjacent to the
child's body that restricts freedom of movement or normal access to any portion of the
child's body and that the child cannot easily remove but does not include mechanical
supports or protective devices;
S. "mechanical support" means a device used to achieve proper body position,
designed by a physical therapist and approved by a physician or designed by an
occupational therapist, such as braces, standers or gait belts, but not including
protective devices;
T. "medically necessary services" means clinical and rehabilitative physical, mental
or behavioral health services that are:
(1)
essential to prevent, diagnose or treat medical conditions or are essential
to enable the child to attain, maintain or regain functional capacity;
(2)
delivered in the amount, duration, scope and setting that is clinically
appropriate to the specific physical, mental and behavioral health care needs of the
child;
(3)
provided within professionally accepted standards of practice and national
guidelines; and
(4)
required to meet the physical, mental and behavioral health needs of the
child and are not primarily for the convenience of the child, provider or payer;
U. "mental disorder" means a substantial disorder of the child's emotional
processes, thought or cognition, not including a developmental disability, that impairs
the child's:
(1)
functional ability to act in developmentally and age-appropriate ways in
any life domain;
(2)
judgment;
(3)
behavior; and
(4)
capacity to recognize reality;
V. "mental health or developmental disabilities professional" means a person who
by training or experience is qualified to work with persons with mental disorders or
developmental disabilities;
W. "out-of-home treatment or habilitation program" means an out-of-home
residential program that provides twenty-four-hour care and supervision to children with
the primary purpose of providing treatment or habilitation to children. "Out-of-home
treatment or habilitation program" includes, but is not limited to, treatment foster care,
group homes, psychiatric hospitals, psychiatric residential treatment facilities and non-
medical and community-based residential treatment centers;
X. "parent" means a biological or adoptive parent of a child whose parental rights
have not been terminated;
Y. "physical restraint" means the use of physical force without the use of any device
or material that restricts the free movement of all or a portion of a child's body;
Z. "protective devices" means helmets, safety goggles or glasses, guards, mitts,
gloves, pads and other common safety devices that are normally used or recommended
for use by persons without disabilities while engaged in a sport or occupation or during
transportation;
AA.
"residential treatment or habilitation program" means diagnosis,
evaluation, care, treatment or habilitation rendered inside or on the premises of a
mental health or developmental disabilities facility, hospital, clinic, institution,
supervisory residence or nursing home when the child resides on the premises and
where one or more of the following measures is available for use:
(1)
a mechanical device to restrain or restrict the child's movement;
(2)
a secure seclusion area from which the child is unable to exit voluntarily;
(3)
a facility or program designed for the purpose of restricting the child's
ability to exit voluntarily; and
(4)
the involuntary emergency administration of psychotropic medication;
BB.
"restraint" means the use of a physical, chemical or mechanical restraint;
CC.
"seclusion" means the confinement of a child alone in a room from which
the child is physically prevented from leaving;
DD.
"treatment" means provision of behavioral health services based on
evaluation of the child, aimed at assisting the child to prevent, correct or ameliorate a
mental disorder. The purpose of treatment is to enable the child to attain, maintain or
regain maximum functioning;
EE.
"treatment team" means a team consisting of the child, the child's parents
unless parental rights have specifically been limited pursuant to an order of a court,
legal custodian, guardian ad litem, treatment guardian, clinician and any other
professionals involved in treatment of the child, other members of the child's family, if
requested by the child, and the child's attorney if requested by the child, unless in the
professional judgment of the treating clinician for reasons of safety or therapy one or
more members should be excluded from participation in the treatment team; and
FF."treatment plan" means an individualized plan developed by a treatment team
based on assessed strengths and needs of the child and family.