Welf. & Inst. Code, § 5520 · Article 3. County Advocates
Welf. & Inst. Code, § 5520
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Each local mental health director shall appoint, or contract for the services of, one or more county patients’ rights advocates. The duties of these advocates shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
(a) To receive and investigate complaints from or concerning recipients of mental health services residing in licensed health or community care facilities regarding abuse, unreasonable denial or punitive withholding of rights guaranteed under the provisions of Division 5 (commencing with Section 5000).
(b) To monitor mental health facilities, services and programs for compliance with statutory and regulatory patients’ rights provisions.
(c) To provide training and education about mental health law and patients’ rights to mental health providers.
(d) To ensure that recipients of mental health services in all licensed health and community care facilities are notified of their rights.
(e) To exchange information and cooperate with the patients’ rights program.
This section does not constitute a change in, but is declarative of the existing law.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2012, Ch. 34, Sec. 109. (SB 1009) Effective June 27, 2012.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=WIC§ionNum=5520.
- Text hash
- sha256 145625870a1e356f943caca604b68126b8802b497560266b105275a446e88db8
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Welfare and Institutions Code
Cited by 3 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Welf. & Inst. Code, § 5520. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.