65E-9.002. Definitions

(1) “Abuse” means any willful or threatened act that results in any physical, mental, or sexual injury or harm that causes or is likely to cause the child’s physical, mental, or emotional health to be significantly impaired. Abuse of a child includes acts or omissions. Corporal discipline of a child by a parent or legal custodian for disciplinary purposes does not in itself constitute abuse when it does not result in harm to the child.

(2) “Administrator” means the chief executive or administrative officer of a residential treatment center or therapeutic group home or his or her designee.

(3) “Agency” or “AHCA” means the Agency for Health Care Administration and the terms are used interchangeably to refer to the Agency for Health Care Administration.

(4) “Assessment” means the appraisal or evaluation of a child’s current condition based on but not limited to clinical and functional data, physical examination, medical history, and current symptomatology.

(5) “Behavior analysis” is the science in which procedures derived from the principles of behavior are systematically applied to increase skill acquisition and reduce problematic behavior, to improve socially significant behavior to a meaningful degree and to demonstrate experimentally that the procedures used were responsible for the improvement in behavior.

(6) “Child” means any person under the age of 18 and, as used in this rule unless otherwise specified, includes the term “adolescent” as defined in Section 394.492(1), F.S.

(7) “Collocation” means the simultaneous operation by a provider of two or more programs on the same grounds or in the same building with complete separation of the children served by the programs.

(8) “Cultural competence” means attaining and applying knowledge, skills, and attitudes that respect the child and family’s individual values and beliefs, so far as to enable administrators and staff to provide effective care and treatment for diverse populations.

(9) “Department” means the Department of Children and Family Services (DCF) unless otherwise specified.

(10) “DSM” means the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association.

(11) “Direct care staff” means a staff member who has direct contact with the child and has primary responsibility, identified in their job description, for providing personal care, assistance, and supervision to a child.

(12) “Drug used as restraint” means the administration of any drug to help control a child’s behavior or restrict the child’s freedom of movement, and is not a standard treatment for the child’s medical or psychiatric condition.

(13) “Emergency safety intervention” means the use of restraint or seclusion as an immediate response to an emergency safety situation.

(14) “Emergency safety situation” means unanticipated child behavior that places the child or others at immediate risk for serious injury if no intervention occurs.

(15) “Employee” means all salaried and hourly wage personnel of the residential treatment center, including therapeutic group home, as well as contracted persons, who may be professionals and licensed or certified pursuant to Florida law or other persons who may meet qualifications as set forth in this rule.

(16) “Family” means the child’s biological, adoptive or foster parent(s), guardian, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and other related or unrelated persons who have a significant relationship with the child. For children placed pursuant to Chapter 39, F.S., the term family also includes the child’s guardian ad litem.

(17) “Family centered care” means an approach to the planning, delivery and evaluation of health care services that is governed by mutually beneficial partnerships between health care providers and the family. Family centered care is characterized by collaborating with the family, focusing on the families’ strengths, recognizing the families’ expertise, fostering family empowerment, promoting information sharing among all parties in a complete and unbiased manner, and programs that are flexible.

(18) “Governing body” means the board of trustees, the partnership, the corporation, the association, or the person or group of persons who maintain and control the provider organization and which is legally responsible for the operation of the provider organization.

(19) “Mechanical restraint” means any device attached or adjacent to a child’s body that the child cannot easily remove that restricts freedom of movement or normal access to the child’s body. However, mechanical restraint does not include physical devices, such as orthopedic prescribed appliances, surgical dressings and bandages, protective helmets and supportive body bands, or other physical holding when necessary for routine physical examinations and tests for orthopedic, surgical and other similar medical treatment purposes or when used to provide support for the achievement of functional body position or proper balance or to protect a patient from falling out of bed or to permit a patient to participate in ongoing activities without the risk of physical harm.

(20) “Medically stable” means good physical health, with no acute or chronic health problems for which medical treatment beyond routine medical care is required or anticipated. Children with a chronic, but stable illness, managed with medication and routine monitoring, such as diabetes or a well controlled seizure disorder, may be considered medically stable.

(21) “Medication administration” means the obtaining and giving of a single dose of medication, prescription or over-the-counter, by an authorized person to a child for his or her consumption.

(22) “Multidisciplinary team” means the group of individuals brought together to plan and coordinate mental health and related services to meet the needs of the child and their family in the most appropriate and least restrictive setting. Members of the team should include the child, unless clinically contraindicated, the child’s parent or legal guardian and other caregivers, such as: the foster parent; the child welfare service worker; the child’s therapist; the child’s behavioral analyst; the child’s Individual Education Plan surrogate; and others who have information or services to offer for the child’s treatment plan.

(23) “Neglect” means when a child is deprived of, or is allowed to be deprived of, necessary food, clothing, shelter, or medical treatment or a child is permitted to live in an environment when such deprivation or environment causes the child’s physical, mental, or emotional health to be significantly impaired or to be in danger of being significantly impaired. The foregoing circumstances shall not be considered neglect if caused primarily by financial inability unless actual services for relief have been offered to and rejected by such person. A parent or legal custodian legitimately practicing religious beliefs in accordance with a recognized church or religious organization who thereby does not provide specific medical treatment for a child shall not, for that reason alone, be considered a negligent parent or legal custodian. Neglect of a child includes acts or omissions.

(24) “Physical restraint” means the application of physical force without the use of any device, for the purpose of restricting the free movement of a child’s body. The term restraint does not include briefly holding without undue force a child in order to calm or comfort him or her, or holding a child’s hand to safely escort him or her from one area to another. Such term may also be known as “personal restraint.”

(25) “Plan of correction” means a written document that specifies actions a provider will take and the time frame within which the provider will come into compliance with Chapter 394, F.S., or these rules.

(26) “Primary diagnosis” means the principal mental disorder, per the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, that is the medically necessary reason for clinical care and the primary focus of treatment.

(27) “Provider” means an individual, organization, corporation, including subcontractor, that is under contract with the department to provide children’s mental health services in a residential treatment center.

(28) “Psychotropic medication” means any drug prescribed with the primary intent to stabilize or improve mood, mental status, behavioral self-control, or mental illnesses.

(29) “Residential treatment center” means a 24-hour residential program, including a therapeutic group home, which provides mental health treatment and services to children as defined in Section 394.492(5) or (6), F.S., and which is a private for-profit or not-for-profit corporation under contract with the department or the agency. This rule does not change the Chapter 419, F.S., designation of a program as a “community residential home.”

(30) “Restraint” means a “drug used as restraint”, “mechanical restraint” or “personal or physical restraint”, as defined in this section. Physical escort is excluded from this definition.

(31) “Screening” means the act of assessing the background of personnel and volunteers.

(32) “Seclusion” means the involuntary confinement of a resident alone in a room or an area that the resident is physically prevented from leaving.

(33) “Serious injury” means any significant impairment of the physical condition of the child as determined by qualified medical personnel. This includes, but is not limited to, burns, lacerations, bone fractures, substantial hematoma, and injuries to internal organs, whether self-inflicted or inflicted by someone else as defined in 42 C.F.R., § 483.352.

(34) “Staff” means all owners, operators, employees, whether full-time, part-time and/or volunteers working in a residential treatment center, or other facility licensed by this rule, who may be employed or contracted by or do volunteer work for a person, corporation, or organization. The term does not include those who do not work on the premises where treatment is provided or either have no direct contact with a child or have no contact with a child outside of the presence of the child’s parent or guardian.

(35) “Supervision of self-administration of medications” means the provision of overseeing, guiding and assisting a child in the self-administration of a dose of medication, including prescription and over-the-counter medications.

(36) “Therapeutic group home” means a 24-hour residential program providing community-based mental health treatment and mental health support services in a home-like setting to no more than 12 children who meet the criteria in Section 394.492(5) or (6), F.S.

(37) “Time-out” means the restriction of a child for a brief period of time (30 minutes or less) to a designated area from which the child is not physically prevented from leaving, for the purpose of providing the child an opportunity to regain self-control and when the use is consistent with the child’s treatment plan. This procedure is sometimes known as “brief isolation.” Regardless of name, the actions taken define the procedure and are therefore subject to this rule.

(38) “Treatment” means the planned, individualized program of medical, psychological, and/or rehabilitative services designed to promote resiliency and facilitate recovery of function, in part through remediation of symptoms of a primary diagnosis, and/or other medical or behavioral condition that significantly impacts the treatment of a primary diagnosis.

(39) “Treatment plan” means the written summary of the child's individualized treatment goals, measurable objectives and treatment services to be provided. The treatment plan is the goal-oriented, time limited, individualized plan of action, which directs the treatment and services provided for the child and family.

Specific Authority 394.875(8) FS. Law Implemented 394.875 FS. History–New 7-25-06, Amended 9-24-08.