NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1965 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 929

HOUSE BILL 902

 

 

AN ACT TO AMEND CERTAIN SECTIONS OF CHAPTER 122 OF THE GENERAL STATUTES OF NORTH CAROLINA, VOLUME 3B, RELATING TO APPLICABILITY OF EXECUTIVE BUDGET ACT, STATE PERSONNEL ACT, MERIT SYSTEM ACT, AND THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH, DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES, JOINT STATE AND COMMUNITY OPERATION OF MENTAL HEALTH CLINICS, AND THE COMMITTING OF MENTALLY ILL PERSONS CHARGED WITH CRIME.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

 

Section 1.  G.S. 122-1.6 is hereby amended by rewriting same to read as follows:

"G.S. 122-1.6.  Applicability of Executive Budget Act, State Personnel Act and Merit System Act. The State Department of Mental Health shall be subjected to the provisions of the Executive Budget Act and the State Personnel Act, Articles 1 and 2 of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes, respectively. Personnel of those local mental health clinics which choose to participate in the Federal Aid Grant Program shall be subject to the provisions of the Merit System Law, Chapter 126 of the General Statutes of North Carolina."

Sec. 2.  G.S. 122-35.2 is hereby amended by rewriting same to read as follows :

"G.S. 122-35.2.  Development of Community Mental Health Services. Child-guidance clinics, adult clinics, all-purpose clinics (i.e., clinics serving both children and adults), and after-care treatment clinics, and a Statewide program of mental health education are to be developed and administered by the Department of Mental Health. The Department is designed to augment, promote, and improve, if necessary the expansion of already existing services in general hospitals or clinics that help to conserve the mental health of the people of North Carolina. The Department will also encourage, implement, and provide assistance for research into various aspects of mental health by the local clinics."

Sec. 3.  G.S. 122-35.3 is hereby amended by rewriting same to read as follows:

"G.S. 122-35.3.  Joint State and Community Operations of Mental Health Clinics. The Department of Mental Health is authorized to establish community mental health services within a framework of policies which provide for the joint operation of mental health clinics within local communities which agree to participate financially and otherwise in the program. This is to be a joint arrangement in which the Department of Mental Health represents the State of North Carolina and a local mental health authority represents the community. The Department of Mental Health is authorized to maintain standards for local mental health clinics, to advise agencies interested in community mental health, and cooperate with other local health services."

Sec. 4.  G.S. 122-83 is hereby amended by rewriting same to read as follows:

"G.S. 122-83.  Mentally Ill Persons Charged With Crime to be Committed to Hospital. All persons who may hereafter commit crime while mentally ill, and all who, being charged with crime, are adjudged to be mentally ill at the time of their arraignment, and for that reason cannot be put on trial for the crimes alleged against them, shall be sent by the court before whom they are or may be arraigned for trial, when it shall be ascertained by due course of law that such person is mentally ill and cannot plead, to Dorothea Dix Hospital, or to Cherry Hospital, and they shall be confined therein under the rules and regulations prescribed by the board of directors under the authority of this Article, and they shall be treated, cared for, and maintained in said hospital. As a means of such care and treatment, the said board of directors may make rules and regulations under which the persons so committed to said institutions may be employed in labor upon the farms of said institutions under such super vision as said boards of directors may direct: Provided, that the superintendent and medical director of the hospital shall determine, in each case, that such employment is advantageous in the physical or mental treatment of the particular inmate to be so employed. Their confinement in said hospital shall not be regarded as punishment for any offense."

Sec. 5.  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 6.  This Act shall become effective upon its ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 10th day of June, 1965.