Section 5221.3. Definitions

The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

Case—A consumer and members of his family being served, if the consumer is a child.

Child—A person 17 years of age or younger or 21 years of age or younger if enrolled in special education.

Consumer—A person who receives intensive case management services. The term does not include a family member who receives services.

County administrator—The MH/MR administrator who has jurisdiction in the geographic area.

County plan—A county plan and estimate of expenditures which describes how case management services will be made available, including the anticipated expenditures for the services. The plan is prepared and updated annually by the county administrator and the county MH/MR board and submitted for approval to the Department of Human Services, Office of Mental Health in accordance with this chapter.

Department—The Department of Human Services of the Commonwealth.

Emotional disturbance—A child’s inability to function in the home, school or community and so the child requires multiple medical, social, educational or other supports.

Enrolled provider—A county MH/MR program or private agency specifically identified as a provider of intensive case management in the county human services plan which has been approved by the Department and enrolled by the Office of Mental Health and the Office of Medical Assistance Programs for claims processing.

Family—Parents, as defined in this section, siblings and other relatives living in the home.

Global assessment of functioning scale—A procedure for measuring the overall severity of psychiatric disturbance which is contained in DSM-III-R (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised), published by the American Psychiatric Association, 1987, Washington, D.C., and subsequent editions.

Intensive case manager—A staff person designated to provide intensive case management under § 5221.21 (relating to organizational requirements).

Intensive case management—The services described in this chapter which are designed to assist targeted adults with serious and persistent mental illness and targeted children with a serious mental illness or emotional disorder and their families, to gain access to needed resources, such as medical, social, educational and other services.

MH/MR—Mental Health/Mental Retardation.

Mental health direct care experience—Working directly with adult or children mental health service consumers, providing services involving casework or case management, individual or group therapy, crisis intervention, early intervention, vocational training, residential care or social rehabilitation in a mental health facility or in a facility or program that is publicly funded to provide services to mental health consumers, or in a nursing home, a juvenile justice agency, or a children and adolescent service agency.

Mental illness—The existence of a mental disability subject to DSM III-R diagnosis, excluding mental retardation or substance abuse as the primary diagnosis, rendered by a licensed physician or psychologist.

Parent—The biological or adoptive mother or father or the legal guardian of the child or a responsible relative or caretaker with whom the child regularly resides.

Supervisor—A person designated to supervise intensive case managers under § 5221.21.

Targeted population—Adults with serious and persistent mental illness and children with serious mental illness or emotional disorders who are deemed eligible to receive intensive case management as identified by the county administrator under this chapter.