COMMITMENT PROCEDURE CHANGES & DEFINITIONS, the official text

SENATE BILL 3

57th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2026

INTRODUCED BY

Antonio Maestas and Crystal Brantley and Pete Campos

and Pamelya Herndon

AN ACT

RELATING TO COMMITMENT PROCEDURES; PROVIDING A DEFINITION FOR
"HARM TO SELF" AND "HARM TO OTHERS" IN THE MENTAL HEALTH AND
DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES CODE AND THE ASSISTED OUTPATIENT
TREATMENT ACT.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

SECTION 1. Section 43-1-3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1977,
Chapter 279, Section 2, as amended) is amended to read:

"43-1-3. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Mental Health and
Developmental Disabilities Code:

A. "aversive stimuli" means anything that, because
it is believed to be unreasonably unpleasant, uncomfortable or
distasteful to the client, is administered or done to the
client for the purpose of reducing the frequency of a behavior,
but does not include verbal therapies, physical restrictions to
prevent imminent harm to self or others or psychotropic
medications that are not used for purposes of punishment;

B. "client" means a patient who is requesting or
receiving mental health services or any person requesting or
receiving developmental disabilities services or who is present
in a mental health or developmental disabilities facility for
the purpose of receiving such services or who has been placed
in a mental health or developmental disabilities facility by
the person's parent or guardian or by any court order;

C. "code" means the Mental Health and Developmental
Disabilities Code;

D. "consistent with the least drastic means
principle" means that the habilitation or treatment and the
conditions of habilitation or treatment for the client,
separately and in combination:

(1) are no more harsh, hazardous or intrusive
than necessary to achieve acceptable treatment objectives for
the client;

(2) involve no restrictions on physical
movement and no requirement for residential care except as
reasonably necessary for the administration of treatment or for
the protection of the client or others from physical injury;
and

(3) are conducted at the suitable available
facility close to the client's place of residence;

E. "convulsive treatment" means any form of mental
health treatment that depends upon creation of a convulsion by
any means, including electroconvulsive treatment and insulin
coma treatment;

F. "court" means a district court of New Mexico;

G. "crisis triage center" means a health facility
that:

(1) is licensed by the health care authority;
and

(2) provides stabilization of behavioral
health crises and may include residential and nonresidential
stabilization;

H. "department" or "division" means the behavioral
health services division of the health care authority;

I. "developmental or intellectual disability" means
a severe chronic disability attributable to significantly
subaverage general intellectual functioning existing
concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior, cerebral
palsy, autism or neurological dysfunction that requires similar
treatment or habilitation;

J. "evaluation facility" means a community mental
health or developmental disability program, a crisis triage
center or a medical facility that has psychiatric or
developmental or intellectual disability services available,
including the New Mexico behavioral health institute at Las
Vegas, or, if none of those is reasonably available or
appropriate, the office of a physician or a certified
psychologist that is capable of performing a mental status
examination adequate to determine the need for involuntary
treatment;

K. "experimental treatment" means any mental health
or developmental disabilities treatment that presents
significant risk of physical harm, but does not include
accepted treatment used in competent practice of medicine and
psychology and supported by scientifically acceptable studies;

L. "grave passive neglect" means failure to provide
for basic personal or medical needs or for one's own safety to
such an extent that it is more likely than not that serious
bodily harm will result in the near future;

M. "habilitation" means the process by which
professional persons and their staff assist a client with a
developmental or an intellectual disability in acquiring and
maintaining those skills and behaviors that enable the person
to cope more effectively with the demands of the person's self
and environment and to raise the level of the person's
physical, mental and social efficiency. "Habilitation"
includes but is not limited to programs of formal, structured
education and treatment;

[N. "likelihood of serious harm to oneself" means
that it is more likely than not that in the near future the
person will attempt to commit suicide or will cause serious
bodily harm to the person's self by violent or other self-destructive means, including grave passive neglect;

O. "likelihood of serious harm to others" means
that it is more likely than not that in the near future a
person will inflict serious, unjustified bodily harm on another
person or commit a criminal sexual offense, as evidenced by
behavior causing, attempting or threatening such harm, which
behavior gives rise to a reasonable fear of such harm from the
person;]

N. "harm to others" means that within the recent
past, the person has inflicted or attempted to inflict serious
bodily harm on another or has acted in such a way as to create
a substantial risk of serious bodily harm to another and it is
more likely than not that the conduct will be repeated in the
near future;

O. "harm to self" means that:

(1) it is more likely than not that in the
near future, the person will attempt to commit suicide or will
cause serious bodily harm to the person's self by violent or
other self-destructive means; or

(2) the person's recent behavior:

(a) demonstrates that the person lacks
the decisional capacity to satisfy the person's need for
nourishment, personal or medical care, shelter or self-protection and safety and that it is more likely than not that
the lack of decisional capacity will result in death, serious
bodily injury or serious physical or mental debilitation in the
near future if treatment is not ordered; and

(b) makes it more likely than not that
the person will suffer serious physical debilitation in the
near future unless adequate treatment is provided pursuant to
the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code;

P. "mental disorder" means substantial disorder of
a person's emotional processes, thought or cognition that
grossly impairs judgment, behavior or capacity to recognize
reality, but does not mean developmental or intellectual
disability;

Q. "mental health or developmental or intellectual
disabilities professional" means a physician or other
professional who by training or experience is qualified to work
with persons with a mental disorder or a developmental or
intellectual disability;

R. "physician" or "certified psychologist", when
used for the purpose of hospital admittance or discharge, means
a physician or certified psychologist who has been granted
admitting privileges at a hospital licensed by the health care
authority, if such privileges are required;

S. "protected health information" means
individually identifiable health information transmitted by or
maintained in an electronic form or any other form or media
that relates to the:

(1) past, present or future physical or mental
health or condition of a person;

(2) provision of health care to a person; or

(3) payment for the provision of health care
to a person;

T. "psychosurgery":

(1) means those operations currently referred
to as lobotomy, psychiatric surgery and behavioral surgery and
all other forms of brain surgery if the surgery is performed
for the purpose of the following:

(a) modification or control of thoughts,
feelings, actions or behavior rather than the treatment of a
known and diagnosed physical disease of the brain;

(b) treatment of abnormal brain function
or normal brain tissue in order to control thoughts, feelings,
actions or behavior; or

(c) treatment of abnormal brain function
or abnormal brain tissue in order to modify thoughts, feelings,
actions or behavior when the abnormality is not an established
cause for those thoughts, feelings, actions or behavior; and

(2) does not include prefrontal sonic
treatment in which there is no destruction of brain tissue;

U. "qualified mental health professional licensed
for independent practice" means an independent social worker, a
licensed professional clinical mental health counselor, a
marriage and family therapist, a certified nurse practitioner,
a clinical nurse specialist with a specialty in mental health
or a licensed art therapist, all of whom by training and
experience are qualified to work with persons with a mental
disorder;

V. "residential treatment or habilitation program"
means diagnosis, evaluation, care, treatment or habilitation
rendered inside or on the premises of a mental health or
developmental disabilities facility, hospital, clinic,
institution or supervisory residence or nursing home when the
client resides on the premises; and

W. "treatment" means any effort to accomplish a
significant change in the mental or emotional condition or

behavior of the client."

SECTION 2. Section 43-1B-2 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2016,
Chapter 84, Section 2, as amended) is amended to read:

"43-1B-2. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Assisted
Outpatient Treatment Act:

A. "advance directive for mental health treatment"
means an individual instruction or power of attorney for mental
health treatment made pursuant to the Mental Health Care
Treatment Decisions Act;

B. "agent" means an individual designated in a
power of attorney for health care to make a mental health care
decision for the individual granting the power;

C. "assertive community treatment" means a team
treatment approach designed to provide comprehensive community-based psychiatric treatment, rehabilitation and support to
persons with serious and persistent mental disorders;

D. "assisted outpatient treatment" means categories
of outpatient services ordered by a district court, including
case management services, comprehensive community support
services, intensive outpatient services, care coordination or
assertive community treatment team services, prescribed to
treat a patient's mental disorder and to assist a patient in
living and functioning in the community or to attempt to
prevent a relapse or deterioration that may reasonably be
predicted to result in harm to the patient or another or the
need for hospitalization. Assisted outpatient treatment may
include:

(1) medication;

(2) periodic blood tests or urinalysis to
determine compliance with prescribed medications;

(3) individual or group therapy;

(4) day or partial-day programming activities;

(5) educational and vocational training or
activities;

(6) alcohol and substance abuse treatment and
counseling;

(7) periodic blood tests or urinalysis for the
presence of alcohol or illegal drugs for a patient with a
history of alcohol or substance abuse;

(8) supervision of living arrangements; and

(9) any other services prescribed to treat the
patient's mental disorder and to assist the patient in living
and functioning in the community, or to attempt to prevent a
deterioration of the patient's mental or physical condition;

E. "covered entity" means a health plan, a health
care clearinghouse or a health care provider that transmits any
health information in electronic form;

F. "guardian" means a judicially appointed guardian
having authority to make mental health care decisions for an
individual;

G. "least restrictive appropriate alternative"
means treatment and conditions that:

(1) are no more harsh, hazardous or intrusive
than necessary to achieve acceptable treatment objectives; and

(2) do not restrict physical movement or
require residential care, except as reasonably necessary for
the administration of treatment or the protection of the
patient;

[H. "likely to result in serious harm to others"
means that it is more likely than not that in the near future a
person will inflict serious, unjustified bodily harm on another
person or commit a criminal sexual offense, as evidenced by
behavior causing, attempting or threatening such harm, which
behavior gives rise to a reasonable fear of such harm from the
person;

I. "likely to result in serious harm to self" means
that it is more likely than not that in the near future the
person will attempt to commit suicide or will cause serious
bodily harm to the person's self by violent or other self-destructive means, including grave passive neglect;]

H. "harm to others" means that within the recent
past, the person has inflicted or attempted to inflict serious
bodily harm on another or has acted in such a way as to create
a substantial risk of serious bodily harm to another and it is
more likely than not that the conduct will be repeated in the
near future;

I. "harm to self" means that:

(1) it is more likely than not that in the
near future, the person will attempt to commit suicide or will
cause serious bodily harm to the person's self by violent or
other self-destructive means; or

(2) the person's recent behavior:

(a) demonstrates that the person lacks
the decisional capacity to satisfy the person's need for
nourishment, personal or medical care, shelter or self-protection and safety and that it is more likely than not that
the lack of decisional capacity will result in death, serious
bodily injury or serious physical or mental debilitation in the
near future if treatment is not ordered; and

(b) makes it more likely than not that
the person will suffer serious physical debilitation in the
near future unless adequate treatment is provided pursuant to
the Assisted Outpatient Treatment Act;

J. "mandated service" means a service specified in
a court order requiring assisted outpatient treatment;

K. "participating municipality or county" means a
municipality or county that has entered into a memorandum of
understanding with its respective district court with respect
to the funding of such district court's administrative
expenses, including legal fees, for proceedings pursuant to the
Assisted Outpatient Treatment Act;

L. "patient" means a person receiving assisted
outpatient treatment pursuant to a court order;

M. "power of attorney for health care" means the
designation of an agent to make health care decisions for the
individual granting the power, made while the individual has
capacity;

N. "provider" means an individual or organization
licensed, certified or otherwise authorized or permitted by law
to provide mental or physical health diagnosis or treatment in
the ordinary course of business or practice of a profession;

O. "qualified professional" means a physician,
licensed psychologist, prescribing psychologist, certified
nurse practitioner or clinical nurse specialist with a
specialty in mental health, or a physician assistant with a
specialty in mental health;

P. "qualified protective order" means, with respect
to protected health information, an order of a district court
or stipulation of parties to a proceeding under the Assisted
Outpatient Treatment Act;

Q. "respondent" means a person who is the subject
of a petition or order for assisted outpatient treatment;

R. "surrogate decision-maker" means:

(1) an agent designated by the respondent;

(2) a guardian; or

(3) a treatment guardian; and

S. "treatment guardian" means a person appointed
pursuant to Section 43-1-15 NMSA 1978 to make mental health
treatment decisions for a person who has been found by clear
and convincing evidence to be incapable of making the person's
own mental health treatment decisions."

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