New York Laws
Article 9 - Hospitalization of Persons With a Mental Illness
9.27 - Involuntary Admission on Medical Certification.

(a) The director of a hospital may receive and retain therein as a
patient any person alleged to be mentally ill and in need of involuntary
care and treatment upon the certificates of two examining physicians,
accompanied by an application for the admission of such person. The
examination may be conducted jointly but each examining physician shall
execute a separate certificate.
(b) Such application must have been executed within ten days prior to
such admission. It may be executed by any one of the following:
1. any person with whom the person alleged to be mentally ill resides.
2. the father or mother, husband or wife, brother or sister, or the
child of any such person or the nearest available relative.
3. the committee of such person.
4. an officer of any public or well recognized charitable institution
or agency or home, including but not limited to the superintendent of a
correctional facility, as such term is defined in paragraph (a) of
subdivision four of section two of the correction law, in whose
institution the person alleged to be mentally ill resides and the
designee authorized by the commissioner of the department of corrections
and community supervision responsible for community supervision in the
region where such person alleged to be mentally ill has been released to
any form of supervision following incarceration.
5. the director of community services or social services official, as
defined in the social services law, of the city or county in which any
such person may be.
6. the director of the hospital or of a general hospital, as defined
in article twenty-eight of the public health law, in which the patient
is hospitalized.
7. the director or person in charge of a facility providing care to
alcoholics, or substance abusers or substance dependent persons.
8. the director of the division for youth, acting in accordance with
the provisions of section five hundred nine of the executive law.
9. subject to the terms of any court order or any instrument executed
pursuant to section three hundred eighty-four-a of the social services
law, a social services official or authorized agency which has, pursuant
to the social services law, care and custody or guardianship and custody
of a child over the age of sixteen.
10. subject to the terms of any court order a person or entity having
custody of a child pursuant to an order issued pursuant to section seven
hundred fifty-six or one thousand fifty-five of the family court act.
11. a qualified psychiatrist who is either supervising the treatment
of or treating such person for a mental illness in a facility licensed
or operated by the office of mental health.
(c) Such application shall contain a statement of the facts upon which
the allegation of mental illness and need for care and treatment are
based and shall be executed under penalty of perjury but shall not
require the signature of a notary public thereon.
(d) Before an examining physician completes the certificate of
examination of a person for involuntary care and treatment, he shall
consider alternative forms of care and treatment that might be adequate
to provide for the person's needs without requiring involuntary
hospitalization. If the examining physician knows that the person he is
examining for involuntary care and treatment has been under prior
treatment, he shall, insofar as possible, consult with the physician or
psychologist furnishing such prior treatment prior to completing his
certificate. Nothing in this section shall prohibit or invalidate any
involuntary admission made in accordance with the provisions of this
chapter.
(e) The director of the hospital where such person is brought shall
cause such person to be examined forthwith by a physician who shall be a
member of the psychiatric staff of such hospital other than the original
examining physicians whose certificate or certificates accompanied the
application and, if such person is found to be in need of involuntary
care and treatment, he may be admitted thereto as a patient as herein
provided.
(f) Following admission to a hospital, no patient may be sent to
another hospital by any form of involuntary admission unless the mental
hygiene legal service has been given notice thereof.
(g) Applications for involuntary admission of patients to residential
treatment facilities for children and youth or transfer of involuntarily
admitted patients to such facilities may be reviewed by the office or
commissioner's designee serving such facility in accordance with section
9.51 of this article and in consultation with the residential treatment
facility receiving an involuntary admission or transfer of an
involuntarily admitted patient.
(h) If a person is examined and determined to be mentally ill, the
fact that such person suffers from alcohol or substance abuse shall not
preclude commitment under this section.
(i) After an application for the admission of a person has been
completed and both physicians have examined such person and separately
certified that he or she is mentally ill and in need of involuntary care
and treatment in a hospital, either physician is authorized to request
peace officers, when acting pursuant to their special duties, or police
officers, who are members of an authorized police department or force or
of a sheriff's department, to take into custody and transport such
person to a hospital for determination by the director whether such
person qualifies for admission pursuant to this section. Upon the
request of either physician an ambulance service, as defined by
subdivision two of section three thousand one of the public health law,
is authorized to transport such person to a hospital for determination
by the director whether such person qualifies for admission pursuant to
this section.