Health and Safety Code §571.002

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.