Northern Kentucky Guide to Adult Mental Health Hospitalizations

 

Kentucky law provides a process for seeking involuntary treatment, including hospitalization, for individuals with severe mental illness who are unable to seek care on a voluntarily basis.

An individual suffering from mental illness can be involuntarily hospitalized if the following criteria are met:

  1. He or she presents a danger or threat of danger to self, family or others as a result of mental illness;
  2. He or she can reasonably benefit from treatment; and
  3. Hospitalization is the least restrictive means of treatment presently available.

An individual who would like to initiate this process on behalf of a loved one should contact the Boone County Attorney’s Office.

 

For more information about the process in Boone County, please read on.
 

THE PROCESS IN BOONE COUNTY:
  1. A petition for involuntary hospitalization may be filed by a Qualified Mental Health professional, police officer, County or Commonwealth’s Attorney, spouse, relative, friend, guardian, or other interested person (the petitioner) in the county where the person to be hospitalized (the respondent) lives or is present at the time of filing.

    The Boone County Attorney’s Office can provide the petition, where it must be completed prior to filing at the Boone County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office.

  2. The District Court Judge will review a filed petition to determine whether a transport order should be issued for the respondent. If so, law enforcement will serve the order on the respondent and, for petitions filed in Boone County, will transport the respondent to Sun Behavioral Health in Erlanger, Kentucky, for evaluation and a seventy-two (72) hour hold.
  3. Sun Behavioral Health will perform two (2) evaluations of the respondent, and a preliminary hearing will be scheduled in Boone District Court within six (6) days.
  4. If both evaluations do not indicate that further treatment is necessary, the respondent will be released from treatment, and the proceedings will be dismissed.
  5. If both evaluations indicate further treatment is necessary, the County Attorney’s Office will present the evaluations to the District Court Judge at the scheduled court hearing, and the Judge will determine if probable cause exists to refer the respondent for treatment, further hospitalization, for longer than seventy-two (72) hours.

    The respondent will be present at this hearing and will be represented by court-appointed counsel.

  6. If a Judge finds that probable cause exists, the respondent will be referred to Eastern State Hospital in Fayette County, Kentucky, and Boone County’s jurisdiction on the matter ends. Fayette County has a final hearing to determine the period of hospitalization.
  7. If the Court finds no probable cause exists to involuntarily hospitalize longer than seventy-two (72) hours, the proceedings will be dismissed, and the respondent will be released from treatment.

*Cases in Boone County will be heard on Thursdays at 11:30am. Petitioners must be present at each Court proceeding throughout the process.