Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 37.2 > Subtitle III > Chapter 8 > Article 2 - Voluntary Admission

• authority: means a public body and a body corporate and politic organized in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 6 (§ 37. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• Board: means the State Board of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
• Community services board: means the public body established pursuant to § 37. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Department: means the Department of Juvenile Justice and "Director" means the administrative head in charge thereof or such of his assistants and subordinates as are designated by him to discharge the duties imposed upon him under this law. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• detention home: means a local, regional or state public or private locked residential facility that has construction fixtures designed to prevent escape and to restrict the movement and activities of children held in lawful custody. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Facility: means a state or licensed hospital, training center, psychiatric hospital, or other type of residential or outpatient mental health or developmental services facility. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• Family member: means an immediate family member of an individual receiving services or the principal caregiver of that individual. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• 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.
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Chapter 42. See Virginia Code 1-257
• Inpatient treatment: means placement for observation, diagnosis, or treatment of mental illness in a psychiatric hospital or in any other type of mental health facility determined by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to be substantially similar to a psychiatric hospital with respect to restrictions on freedom and therapeutic intrusiveness. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• judge: includes a retired judge sitting by designation pursuant to § 16. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Mental health facility: means a public or private facility for the treatment of mental illness operated or licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Mental illness: means a substantial disorder of the minor's cognitive, volitional, or emotional processes that demonstrably and significantly impairs judgment or capacity to recognize reality or to control behavior. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Mental illness: means a disorder of thought, mood, emotion, perception, or orientation that significantly impairs judgment, behavior, capacity to recognize reality, or ability to address basic life necessities and requires care and treatment for the health, safety, or recovery of the individual or for the safety of others. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• Minor: means a person less than 18 years of age. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Parent: means (i) a biological or adoptive parent who has legal custody of the minor, including either parent if custody is shared under a joint decree or agreement, (ii) a biological or adoptive parent with whom the minor regularly resides, (iii) a person judicially appointed as a legal guardian of the minor, or (iv) a person who exercises the rights and responsibilities of legal custody by delegation from a biological or adoptive parent, upon provisional adoption or otherwise by operation of law. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
• Personal representative: includes the executor of a will or the administrator of the estate of a decedent, the administrator of such estate with the will annexed, the administrator of such estate unadministered by a former representative, whether there is a will or not, any person who is under the order of a circuit court to take into his possession the estate of a decedent for administration, and every other curator of a decedent's estate, for or against whom suits may be brought for causes of action that accrued to or against the decedent. See Virginia Code 1-234
• Qualified evaluator: means a psychiatrist or a psychologist licensed in Virginia by either the Board of Medicine or the Board of Psychology, or if such psychiatrist or psychologist is unavailable, (i) any mental health professional licensed in Virginia through the Department of Health Professions as a clinical social worker, professional counselor, marriage and family therapist, or psychiatric advanced practice registered nurse or (ii) any mental health professional employed by a community services board. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Shelter care: means the temporary care of children in physically unrestricting facilities. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Special justice: means a person appointed by a chief judge of a judicial circuit for the purpose of performing the duties of a judge pursuant to § 37. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Treatment: means any planned intervention intended to improve a minor's functioning in those areas which show impairment as a result of mental illness. See Virginia Code 16.1-336