(a) If the head of the federally mandated protection and advocacy agency for persons with mental illness, serious emotional disturbance, or developmental disability, or the designated representative of the agency head, requests disclosure of information protected by § 33-3-103 and specifies the personally identifiable service recipient information sought and the federally mandated function for which it is required, the information may be disclosed to the agency without consent. The disclosure of information shall be made solely for use in connection with the federally mandated function. The disclosures are subject to federal confidentiality laws, including the requirement that there be no further disclosure of the personally identifiable information by the agency without consent of the service recipient or conservator or of the parent’s or legal guardian‘s consent in the case of a child. The service provider shall notify the service recipient, a child service recipient’s parent or legal guardian, and the service recipient’s conservator, if any, of the disclosure. All public and private service providers shall cooperate with the agency in responding to requests, including, but not limited to, those made under the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 1975 (42 U.S.C. § 6000 et seq.); the Protection and Advocacy for Mentally Ill Individuals (PAMII) Act of 1986 (42 U.S.C. § 10801 et seq.); and the Protection and Advocacy for Individual Rights Act (29 U.S.C. § 794e).
Consent: means voluntary agreement to what is reasonably well understood regardless of how the agreement is expressed. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
Department: means the department of mental health and substance abuse services. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
Mental illness: means a psychiatric disorder, alcohol dependence, or drug dependence, but does not include intellectual disability or other developmental disabilities as defined in title 52. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
Serious emotional disturbance: means a condition in a child who currently or at any time during the past year has had a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder of sufficient duration to meet psychiatric diagnostic criteria that results in functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits the child's role or functioning in family, school, or community activities and includes any mental disorder, regardless of whether it is of biological etiology. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
Service recipient: means a person who is receiving service, has applied for service, or for whom someone has applied for or proposed service because the person has mental illness or serious emotional disturbance. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
(b) If an organization may pay for a service provider’s service to a service recipient, the service provider may disclose to the organization without service recipient consent only such information about the service recipient as is reasonably necessary to obtain timely payment. Disclosures are on the condition that there be no further disclosure of the personally identifiable information by the agency without service recipient consent.(c) If the department determines that an emergency substantially impairs a provider’s capacity to provide service to its service recipients and the department appoints a receiver for service recipient information, the service recipient’s information may be transferred to a new service provider without service recipient consent.
