Mental Disabilities Law Issues
| Publication year | 1980 |
| Pages | 1877 |
1980, September, Pg. 1877. Mental Disabilities Law Issues
1877
In Colorado, admission into a facility treating the developmentally disabled is voluntary. The developmentally disabled person or his or her parents, legal guardian or custodian must make application for either short-term or long-term admission (see, C.R.S. 1973, §§ 27-10.5-103 and 27-10.5-104, as amended). This approach is consistent with the legal trend toward the least restrictive environment for treatment of the mentally disabled.
Occasionally, however, an adult developmentally disabled person has trouble functioning outside a facility, possibly because he or she has not acquired the living skills necessary to make life in a nondisabled society less frustrating. These persons may be frequently arrested for petty offenses or may ignore their basic needs for clothing, food and shelter. These patterns lead, in turn, to frustration on the part of family and friends.
Recognizing a need for some developmentally disabled persons to be treated without their consent because of exceptional circumstances, the second regular session of the Forty-Ninth General Assembly amended a little-known provision of the Mental Health Act to provide a mechanism for such involuntary treatment. C.R.S. 1973, § 27-10-125, as amended, provides for "imposition of a legal disability" and "deprivation of a legal right." Specifically, in the case of developmentally disabled persons, the court may decide place of abode, which allows the court to order a developmentally disabled person to live at a State Home and Training School. A brief summary of the criteria and the mechanism for imposing a legal disability or depriving a legal right follows.
C.R.S. 1973, § 27-10-125 applies only to certain classifications of people, which are: the mentally ill who are dangerous to self or others, the gravely disabled, the mentally retarded, the developmentally disabled, and insane persons. In order to be a proper subject for proceedings under the new statute, such persons may not also be subject to proceedings under the Mental Health statute, the Guardianship statutes nor the Social Services Protective Services statute.(fn1) Actions may be commenced by any interested persons by...
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