Section 7 AAC 50.805 - Secure and semi-secure residential psychiatric treatment centers(a) A facility that applies under this chapter for a license to operate as a residential psychiatric treatment center for children must demonstrate in its application to the department that the facility is (1) a semi-secure residential psychiatric treatment center; or(2) both a semi-secure and secure residential psychiatric treatment center.(b) Each facility must submit the training plan required by 7 AAC 50.820 as part of the facility's application for a license or a license renewal.(c) Each facility must submit a written security plan to the department as part of the facility's application for a license or a license renewal. Portions of a facility's security plan that are related to fire or emergency safety must meet the approval of the appropriate municipal or state fire safety authority, and the facility shall supply proof of the required approval to the department at the time the application is submitted.(d) To be licensed as a semi-secure residential psychiatric treatment center, a residential psychiatric treatment center must put into place, under the security plan submitted in accordance with (c) of this section, a level of security that will reasonably ensure, through resident and staff training and deployment, and the use of construction, mechanical or electronic means, that (1) a child in treatment will not leave the facility without permission; and(2) that if a child leaves the facility without permission, the child's act of leaving will be immediately noticed, and that the facility will immediately take steps that are appropriate to reasonably ensure the safety of the child and the community, and to cause the earliest appropriate return of the child to the facility.(e) To be licensed as both a semi-secure and secure residential psychiatric treatment center, a residential psychiatric treatment center or a portion of a residential psychiatric treatment center must be lockable, by mechanical or electronic means, to prevent residents from leaving without authorization. The existence of a locked behavior-management room on each residential unit or sub-unit of the facility does not by itself qualify a facility for licensure as a secure residential psychiatric treatment center.(f) Each facility that operates any part or unit of its facility as a secure residential psychiatric treatment center shall also operate a portion of its facility as a semi-secure residential psychiatric treatment center, and whenever possible shall arrange the facility's security measures and treatment programs so that a child who has resided in the secure part of a facility, may, as appropriate, continue in the same treatment and other therapeutic, educational, and other programs of the facility when the child is allowed to reside in the semi-secure part of the facility.Eff. 6/21/2001, Register 158; am 7/1/2022, Register 242, July 2022Authority:AS 44.29.020
AS 47.32.030
AS 47.32.040
AS 47.32.060