Sec. 531.002. DEFINITIONS  


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  • In this subtitle:

    (1) "Board" means the Texas Board of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.

    (2) "Business entity" means a sole proprietorship, partnership, firm, corporation, holding company, joint-stock company, receivership, trust, or any other entity recognized by law.

    (3) "Chemical dependency" has the meaning assigned by Section 461.002.

    (4) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of mental health and mental retardation.

    (5) "Community center" means a center established under Subchapter A, Chapter 534.

    (6) "Department" means the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.

    (7) "Effective administration" includes continuous planning and evaluation within the system that result in more efficient fulfillment of the purposes and policies of this subtitle.

    (8) "ICF-MR" means the medical assistance program serving persons with mental retardation who receive care in intermediate care facilities.

    (9) "Local agency" means:

    (A) a municipality, county, hospital district, rehabilitation district, school district, state-supported institution of higher education, or state-supported medical school; or

    (B) any organizational combination of two or more of those entities.

    (10) "Local mental health authority" means an entity to which the board delegates its authority and responsibility within a specified region for planning, policy development, coordination, including coordination with criminal justice entities, and resource development and allocation and for supervising and ensuring the provision of mental health services to persons with mental illness in the most appropriate and available setting to meet individual needs in one or more local service areas.

    (11) "Local mental retardation authority" means an entity to which the board delegates its authority and responsibility within a specified region for planning, policy development, coordination, including coordination with criminal justice entities, and resource development and allocation and for supervising and ensuring the provision of mental retardation services to persons with mental retardation in the most appropriate and available setting to meet individual needs in one or more local service areas.

    (12) "Mental health services" includes all services concerned with research, prevention, and detection of mental disorders and disabilities, and all services necessary to treat, care for, control, supervise, and rehabilitate persons who have a mental disorder or disability, including persons whose mental disorders or disabilities result from alcoholism or drug addiction.

    (13) "Mental retardation services" includes all services concerned with research, prevention, and detection of mental retardation, and all services related to the education, training, habilitation, care, treatment, supervision, and control of persons with mental retardation, but does not include the education of school-age persons that the public educational system is authorized to provide.

    (13-a) "Person with a developmental disability" means an individual with a severe, chronic disability attributable to a mental or physical impairment or a combination of mental and physical impairments that:

    (A) manifests before the person reaches 22 years of age;

    (B) is likely to continue indefinitely;

    (C) reflects the individual's need for a combination and sequence of special, interdisciplinary, or generic services, individualized supports, or other forms of assistance that are of a lifelong or extended duration and are individually planned and coordinated; and

    (D) results in substantial functional limitations in three or more of the following categories of major life activity:

    (i) self-care;

    (ii) receptive and expressive language;

    (iii) learning;

    (iv) mobility;

    (v) self-direction;

    (vi) capacity for independent living; and

    (vii) economic self-sufficiency.

    (14) "Person with mental retardation" means a person, other than a person with a mental disorder, whose mental deficit requires the person to have special training, education, supervision, treatment, care, or control in the person's home or community or in a state school.

    (15) "Priority population" means those groups of persons with mental illness or mental retardation identified by the department as being most in need of mental health or mental retardation services.

    (16) "Region" means the area within the boundaries of the local agencies participating in the operation of community centers established under Subchapter A, Chapter 534.

    (17) "State supported living center" means a state-supported and structured residential facility operated by the Department of Aging and Disability Services to provide to clients with mental retardation a variety of services, including medical treatment, specialized therapy, and training in the acquisition of personal, social, and vocational skills.

Added by Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 76, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1991. Amended by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 107, Sec. 6.01, eff. Aug. 30, 1993; Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 821, Sec. 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1995; Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 367, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2001. Amended by: Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 284 , Sec. 17, eff. June 11, 2009. Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1292 , Sec. 1, eff. June 19, 2009.