Tex. Health and Safety Code § 571.002: PURPOSE.

The purpose of this subtitle is to provide to each person having severe mental illness access to humane care and treatment by:

(1) facilitating treatment in an appropriate setting;

(2) enabling the person to obtain necessary evaluation, care, treatment, and rehabilitation with the least possible trouble, expense, and embarrassment to the person and the person's family;

(3) eliminating, if requested, the traumatic effect on the person's mental health of public trial and criminal-like procedures;

(4) protecting the person's right to a judicial determination of the person's need for involuntary treatment;

(5) defining the criteria the state must meet to order involuntary care and treatment;

(6) establishing the procedures to obtain facts, carry out examinations, and make prompt and fair decisions;

(7) safeguarding the person's legal rights so as to advance and not impede the therapeutic and protective purposes of involuntary care; and

(8) safeguarding the rights of the person who voluntarily requests inpatient care.

Added by Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 76, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1991.