PDFWAC 246-341-1128

Mental health inpatient servicesPolicies and proceduresMinors.

In addition to meeting the agency licensure, certification, administration, personnel, and clinical requirements in WAC 246-341-0100 through 246-341-0650 and the applicable inpatient services requirements in WAC 246-341-1118 through 246-341-1132, inpatient facilities serving minor children seventeen years of age and younger must develop and implement policies and procedures to address special considerations for serving children. These special considerations must include all of the following:
(1) Procedures to ensure that adults are separated from minors who are not yet thirteen years of age.
(2) Procedures to ensure that a minor who is at least age thirteen but not yet age eighteen is served with adults only if the minor's clinical record contains:
(a) Documentation that justifies such placement; and
(b) A professional judgment that placement in an inpatient facility that serves adults will not harm the minor.
(3) Procedures to ensure examination and evaluation of a minor by a children's mental health specialist occurs within twenty-four hours of admission.
(4) Procedures to ensure a facility that provides inpatient services for minors and is licensed by the department under chapter 71.12 RCW, meets the following notification requirements if a minor's parent(s) brings the child to the facility for the purpose of behavioral health treatment or evaluation:
(a) Provide a written and oral notice to the minor's parent(s) or legal representative(s) of:
(i) All current statutorily available treatment options available to the minor including, but not limited to, those provided in chapter 71.34 RCW; and
(ii) A description of the procedures the facility will follow to utilize the treatment options.
(b) Obtain and place in the clinical file, a signed acknowledgment from the minor's parent(s) that the notice required under (a) of this subsection was received.
(5) Procedures that address provisions for evaluating a minor brought to the facility for evaluation by a parent(s).
(6) Procedures to notify child protective services any time the facility has reasonable cause to believe that abuse, neglect, financial exploitation or abandonment of a minor has occurred.
(7) Procedures to ensure a minor thirteen years or older who is brought to an inpatient facility or hospital for immediate behavioral health services is evaluated by the professional person in charge of the facility. The professional person must evaluate the minor's condition and determine the need for behavioral health inpatient treatment, and the minor's willingness to obtain voluntary treatment. The facility may detain or arrange for the detention of the minor up to twelve hours for evaluation by a designated crisis responder to commence detention proceedings.
(8) Procedures to ensure that the admission of a minor thirteen years of age or older admitted without parental consent has the concurrence of the professional person in charge of the facility and written review and documentation no less than every one hundred eighty days.
(9) Procedures to ensure that notice is provided to the parent(s) when a minor child is voluntarily admitted to inpatient treatment without parental consent within twenty-four hours of admission in accordance with the requirements of RCW 71.34.510 and within the confidentiality requirements of 42 C.F.R. Sec. 2.14.
(10) Procedures to ensure a minor who has been admitted on the basis of a designated crisis responder petition for detention is evaluated by the facility providing seventy-two hour inpatient services to determine the minor's condition and either admit or release the minor. If the minor is not approved for admission, the facility must make recommendations and referral for further care and treatment as necessary.
(11) Procedures for the examination and evaluation of a minor approved for inpatient admission to include:
(a) The needs to be served by placement in a secure withdrawal management or evaluation and treatment facility;
(b) Restricting the right to associate or communicate with a parent(s); and
(c) Advising the minor of rights in accordance with chapter 71.34 RCW.
(12) Procedures to petition for fourteen-day commitment that are in accordance with RCW 71.34.730.
(13) Procedures for commitment hearing requirements and release from further inpatient treatment that may be subject to reasonable conditions, if appropriate, and are in accordance with RCW 71.34.740.
(14) Procedures for discharge and conditional release of a minor in accordance with RCW 71.34.770, provided that the professional person in charge gives the court written notice of the release within three days of the release. If the minor is on a one hundred eighty-day commitment, the children's long-term inpatient program (CLIP) administrator must also be notified.
(15) Procedures to ensure rights of a minor undergoing treatment and posting of such rights are in accordance with RCW 71.34.355, 71.34.620, and 71.34.370.
(16) Procedures for the release of a minor who is not accepted for admission or who is released by an inpatient facility that are in accordance with RCW 71.34.365.
(17) Procedures to ensure treatment of a minor and all information obtained through treatment under this chapter are disclosed only in accordance with applicable state and federal law.
(18) Procedures to make court records and files available that are in accordance with RCW 71.34.335.
(19) Procedures to release behavioral health services information only in accordance with applicable state and federal statutes.
[Statutory Authority: 2018 c 201 and 2018 c 291. WSR 19-09-062, § 246-341-1128, filed 4/16/19, effective 5/17/19.]