Mental Hygiene Law § 9.21 · Article 9. Hospitalization of Persons With a Mental Illness
Voluntary and informal admissions; encouragement of
Text — Law content up to date as of June 26, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 9.21 Voluntary and informal admissions; encouragement of.
(a) It shall be the duty of all state and local officers having duties to perform relating to the mentally ill to encourage any person suitable therefor and in need of care and treatment for mental illness to apply for admission as a voluntary or informal patient.
(b) No requirement shall be made by rule, regulation, or otherwise as a condition to admission or retention that any person applying for admission shall have the legal capacity to contract.
(c) A person requesting admission to a hospital, who is suitable for admission on a voluntary or informal status, shall be admitted only on such a voluntary or informal status. The hospital shall, in such case, have the discretion to admit the person on either such status, except that, if the person specifically requests admission on an informal status and is suitable therefor, he shall be admitted only on such informal status.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of June 26, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/MHY9.21
- Text hash
- sha256 8238a0194fe6f200bfb48e3f9f1bcb42e15c12af98d0edbf85ff3cda5a28878f
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
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