South Carolina § 44-26-140 - Clients to receive least restrictive appropriate care and habilitation available; exceptions.

§ 44-26-140. Clients to receive least restrictive appropriate care and habilitation available; exceptions.

(A) Clients receiving services for intellectual disability shall receive care and habilitation suited to their needs and in the least restrictive appropriate care and habilitation available. The care and habilitation must be administered skillfully, safely, and humanely with full respect for the client's dignity and personal integrity. The office shall make every effort, based on available resources, to develop services necessary to meet the needs of its clients.

(B) In emergency admissions when the least restrictive setting is not available a client must be admitted to the nearest proper facility until he may be moved to the least restrictive setting.

(C) In judicial or emergency admissions to the office every attempt must be made by the court to ensure a client's placement in the least restrictive alternative of services available.

(D) No client may remain at a level of care that is more restrictive than is warranted to meet his needs if alternative care is available. A residential program must attempt to move clients from:

(1) more to less structured living;

(2) larger to smaller facilities;

(3) larger to smaller living units;

(4) group to individual residence;

(5) segregated from the community to integrated into the community;

(6) dependent to independent living.

HISTORY: 1992 Act No. 366, SECTION 1; 1993 Act No. 31, SECTION 2; 2011 Act No. 47, SECTION 6, eff June 7, 2011.

Code Commissioner's Note

At the direction of the Code Commissioner, certain references in the S.C. Code to the State Department of Mental Health, South Carolina Mental Health Commission, Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, Department of Disabilities and Special Needs Commission, Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, and other related terms were changed to reflect the restructuring of these agencies into component offices under the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, pursuant to 2025 Act No. 3, SECTION 18.