Section 5210.31. Staffing and personnel

(a) Program director. The program director shall be a mental health professional with a minimum of 3 years of relevant post-graduate clinical experience including one year experience or training with children and youth mental health programs.

(b) Staff/patient ratio. Children and youth partial hospitalization programs require a minimum of one FTE clinical staff member for every five patients, such as, a program with an average daily capacity of 20 would require four FTE staff. Staff/patient ratio shall be prorated on the basis of capacity of the program. When there are changes in program capacity, appropriate staffing changes shall be made as required. Staff shall be of appropriate professional disciplines and shall include at least one member, other than the program director, who is a mental health professional or one member who is a psychiatric nurse. Any clinical staff time devoted specifically to the partial program including that of program director and medical staff shall be calculated in the patient/staff ratio.

(c) Psychiatric staff. Children and youth partial hospitalization programs shall have a minimum of 2 hours of assigned psychiatric time per week for every five patients of program capacity.