Community Mental Health Center Regulations in Florida

Community mental health regulations in Florida come under the authority of the Department of Children and Family Services. Along with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, the department has the duty of carrying out executive and administrative oversight for all mental health-related programs, services and facilities.

Licensing

• To receive a license to operate a community mental health center in Florida, a facility must provide a long-term residential setting along with a support system, assistance and some supervision for adults with an acute level of mental illness who do not have homes. The rules require the residential facility to provide its residents with a 60-day average stay.

Personnel Screening

• Most Florida mental health personnel must undergo an employment screening. The rules require program directors, staff, volunteers and professional clinicians to pass a level-two screening. The law applies to private and public facilities that serve unmarried patients under age 18. Level-two screening includes a check for state criminal history records and a FBI-performed search of national criminal history systems.

Patient Rights

• The community mental health center must ensure that patients receive respectful and dignified treatment whether being taken into custody, held or transported. Florida law prohibits facilities' use of restraint mechanisms unless necessary to safeguard the patient or other people.

Right to Treatment

• Florida facilities cannot deny patients treatment of their illness or delay curative treatment. By law, the facility must have a doctor conduct a physical evaluation of individuals who stay at the facility 12 or more hours after they arrive at the facility. The examination must take place within 24 hours of arrival. If the attending doctor determines that the patient needs emergency medical care or a life-saving procedure, the regulations allow community mental health center administrators to authorize the treatment if the patient or a guardian cannot give consent. Within five days after admittance to a facility, the person must receive a written treatment plan that incorporates the individual's input. The patient has the right to review the document and make comments.

Communication

• An individual who receives service from a community mental health center has the right to communicate freely and confidentially with people or organizations outside the center, except when such contact may harm the person. The facility must make a phone available for local and long-distance calls and make the phones accessible and private. Individuals also have the right to send and receive uncensored correspondence in private.

Habeas Corpus

• Any individual held in a mental health center, or a relative, guardian, friend, agency or lawyer might file a petition with the courts for a writ of habeas corpus. This petition questions the reason and legal justification for detaining the patient and requires a written response. Mental health care facilities must inform each person of his right to file the petition.