N.M. Stat. § 43-1-3 (2026)

As used in the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code:

    A. "aversive stimuli" means anything that, because it is believed to be unreasonably
unpleasant, uncomfortable or distasteful to the client, is administered or done to the
client for the purpose of reducing the frequency of a behavior, but does not include
verbal therapies, physical restrictions to prevent imminent harm to self or others or
psychotropic medications that are not used for purposes of punishment;

    B. "client" means a patient who is requesting or receiving mental health services or
any person requesting or receiving developmental disabilities services or who is present
in a mental health or developmental disabilities facility for the purpose of receiving such
services or who has been placed in a mental health or developmental disabilities facility
by the person's parent or guardian or by any court order;

   C. "code" means the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code;

    D. "consistent with the least drastic means principle" means that the habilitation or
treatment and the conditions of habilitation or treatment for the client, separately and in
combination:
      (1)    are no more harsh, hazardous or intrusive than necessary to achieve
acceptable treatment objectives for the client;

        (2)   involve no restrictions on physical movement and no requirement for
residential care except as reasonably necessary for the administration of treatment or
for the protection of the client or others from physical injury; and

      (3)     are conducted at the suitable available facility close to the client's place of
residence;

   E. "convulsive treatment" means any form of mental health treatment that depends
upon creation of a convulsion by any means, including electroconvulsive treatment and
insulin coma treatment;

   F. "court" means a district court of New Mexico;

   G. "crisis triage center" means a health facility that:

       (1)    is licensed by the health care authority; and

      (2)     provides stabilization of behavioral health crises and may include
residential and nonresidential stabilization;

   H. "department" or "division" means the behavioral health services division of the
health care authority;

    I. "developmental or intellectual disability" means a severe chronic disability
attributable to significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing
concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior, cerebral palsy, autism or neurological
dysfunction that requires similar treatment or habilitation;

    J. "evaluation facility" means a community mental health or developmental disability
program, a crisis triage center or a medical facility that has psychiatric or developmental
or intellectual disability services available, including the New Mexico behavioral health
institute at Las Vegas, or, if none of those is reasonably available or appropriate, the
office of a physician or a certified psychologist that is capable of performing a mental
status examination adequate to determine the need for involuntary treatment;

    K. "experimental treatment" means any mental health or developmental disabilities
treatment that presents significant risk of physical harm, but does not include accepted
treatment used in competent practice of medicine and psychology and supported by
scientifically acceptable studies;

   L. "grave passive neglect" means failure to provide for basic personal or medical
needs or for one's own safety to such an extent that it is more likely than not that
serious bodily harm will result in the near future;
    M. "habilitation" means the process by which professional persons and their staff
assist a client with a developmental or an intellectual disability in acquiring and
maintaining those skills and behaviors that enable the person to cope more effectively
with the demands of the person's self and environment and to raise the level of the
person's physical, mental and social efficiency. "Habilitation" includes but is not limited
to programs of formal, structured education and treatment;

   N. "likelihood of serious harm to oneself" means that it is more likely than not that in
the near future the person will attempt to commit suicide or will cause serious bodily
harm to the person's self by violent or other self-destructive means, including grave
passive neglect;

    O. "likelihood of serious harm to others" means that it is more likely than not that in
the near future a person will inflict serious, unjustified bodily harm on another person or
commit a criminal sexual offense, as evidenced by behavior causing, attempting or
threatening such harm, which behavior gives rise to a reasonable fear of such harm
from the person;

   P. "mental disorder" means substantial disorder of a person's emotional processes,
thought or cognition that grossly impairs judgment, behavior or capacity to recognize
reality, but does not mean developmental or intellectual disability;

   Q. "mental health or developmental or intellectual disabilities professional" means a
physician or other professional who by training or experience is qualified to work with
persons with a mental disorder or a developmental or intellectual disability;

    R. "physician" or "certified psychologist", when used for the purpose of hospital
admittance or discharge, means a physician or certified psychologist who has been
granted admitting privileges at a hospital licensed by the health care authority, if such
privileges are required;

    S. "protected health information" means individually identifiable health information
transmitted by or maintained in an electronic form or any other form or media that
relates to the:

       (1)    past, present or future physical or mental health or condition of a person;

       (2)    provision of health care to a person; or

       (3)    payment for the provision of health care to a person;

   T. "psychosurgery":

      (1)    means those operations currently referred to as lobotomy, psychiatric
surgery and behavioral surgery and all other forms of brain surgery if the surgery is
performed for the purpose of the following:
           (a) modification or control of thoughts, feelings, actions or behavior rather
than the treatment of a known and diagnosed physical disease of the brain;

           (b) treatment of abnormal brain function or normal brain tissue in order to
control thoughts, feelings, actions or behavior; or

          (c) treatment of abnormal brain function or abnormal brain tissue in order to
modify thoughts, feelings, actions or behavior when the abnormality is not an
established cause for those thoughts, feelings, actions or behavior; and

       (2)     does not include prefrontal sonic treatment in which there is no destruction
of brain tissue;

    U. "qualified mental health professional licensed for independent practice" means
an independent social worker, a licensed professional clinical mental health counselor,
a marriage and family therapist, a certified nurse practitioner, a clinical nurse specialist
with a specialty in mental health or a licensed art therapist, all of whom by training and
experience are qualified to work with persons with a mental disorder;

    V. "residential treatment or habilitation program" means diagnosis, evaluation, care,
treatment or habilitation rendered inside or on the premises of a mental health or
developmental disabilities facility, hospital, clinic, institution or supervisory residence or
nursing home when the client resides on the premises; and

  W. "treatment" means any effort to accomplish a significant change in the mental or
emotional condition or behavior of the client.

History: 1953 Comp., § 34-2A-2, enacted by Laws 1977, ch. 279, § 2; 1978, ch. 161, §
1; 1979, ch. 213, § 1; 1979, ch. 396, § 1; 1989, ch. 128, § 3; 1993, ch. 77, § 231; 2005,
ch. 313, § 11; 2007, ch. 46, § 42; 2007, ch. 325, § 9; 2013, ch. 39, § 1; 2016, ch. 84, §
15; 2023, ch. 113, § 12; 2023, ch. 117, § 2; 2024, ch. 39, § 124.

                                      ANNOTATIONS

The 2024 amendment, effective July 1, 2024, provided that references to "department"
or "division" as used in the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code, mean
the health care authority, removed the Los Lunas medical center from the list of
evaluation facilities, and made conforming amendments; in Subsection G, Paragraph
G(1), after "licensed by the" deleted "department of" and after "health" added "care
authority"; in Subsection H, after "division of the" deleted "human services department"
and added "health care authority"; in Subsection J, after "Las Vegas" deleted "the Los
Lunas medical center"; and in Subsection R, after "licensed by the" deleted "department
of" and after "health," added "care authority".

2023 Amendments. — Laws 2023, ch. 117, § 2, effective June 16, 2023, defined "crisis
triage center", included a crisis triage center in the definition of "evaluation facility" and
included a licensed art therapist in the definition of "qualified mental health professional
licensed for independent practice"; added a new Subsection G and redesignated former
Subsections G through V as Subsections H through W, respectively; in Subsection J,
after "developmental disability program", added "a crisis triage center"; and in
Subsection U, after "specialty in mental health", added "or a licensed art therapist".

Laws 2023, ch. 113, § 12, effective June 16, 2023, defined "developmental or
intellectual disability" and removed the definition of "developmental disability"; added a
new Subsection H; and in Subsections L through P, after "developmental", added "or an
intellectual".

The 2016 amendment, effective July 1, 2016, defined "protective health information" as
used in the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code; in Subsection M, after
"including", deleted "but not limited to"; and added a new Subsection R and
redesignated the succeeding subsections accordingly.

The 2013 amendment, effective June 14, 2013, defined "qualified mental health
professional licensed for independent practice"; in Subsection I, after "the office of a",
deleted "licensed"; in Subsection O, after "mental", deleted "disability" and added
"disorder"; in Subsection P, after "persons with a mental", deleted "disability" and added
"disorder"; and added Subsection S.

The 2007 amendment, effective June 15, 2007, changed "department of health" to
"human services department".

The 2005 amendment, effective June 17, 2005, in Subsection G, defined "division"; in
Subsection I, changed the name of the Las Vegas medical center to the New Mexico
behavioral institute at Las Vegas and changed the name of the Los Lunas hospital and
training school to the Los Lunas medical center ; and deleted Subsection U, which
defined "division".

The 1993 amendment, effective July 1, 1993, substituted "department of health" for
"health and environment department" in Subsections G, Q, and U; substituted "shall be
capable" for "must be capable" near the end of Subsection I; deleted former Subsection
U, defining "residential treatment program for mental disorders"; and redesignated
former Subsection V as present Subsection U.

The 1989 amendment, effective June 16, 1989, in Subsection I substituted "including
the Las Vegas Medical Center" for "the New Mexico state hospital" and added all of the
language following "physician"; added present Subsection K; redesignated former
Subsections K through O as present Subsections L through P; deleted "as evidenced by
behavior causing, attempting or threatening the infliction of serious bodily harm to
himself" at the end of present Subsection M; added "but does not mean developmental
disability" at the end of present Subsection O; added present Subsection Q;
redesignated former Subsections P through U as present Subsections R through V; and
made minor stylistic changes throughout the section.
Behavior threatening harm sufficient. — The behavior at issue in Subsections M and
N does not have to have caused the requisite harm; behavior threatening the requisite
harm is sufficient. State v. Pernell, 1979-NMCA-008, 92 N.M. 490, 590 P.2d 638.

Law reviews. — For article, "Treating Children Under the New Mexico Mental Health
and Developmental Disabilities Code," see 10 N.M.L. Rev. 279 (1980).

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — Test or criterion of mental condition
within contemplation of statute providing for commitment of persons because of mental
condition, 158 A.L.R. 1220.

Standard of proof required under statute providing for commitment of sexual offenders
or sexual psychopaths, 96 A.L.R.3d 840.