Sec. 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.