Welfare and Institutions Code section 5325

Each person involuntarily detained for evaluation or treatment under provisions of this part, and each person admitted as a voluntary patient for psychiatric evaluation or treatment to any health facility, as defined in Section 1250 of the Health and Safety Code, in which psychiatric evaluation or treatment is offered, shall have the following rights, a list of which shall be prominently posted in the predominant languages of the community and explained in a language or modality accessible to the patient in all facilities providing those services, and otherwise brought to his or her attention by any additional means as the Director of Health Care Services may designate by regulation. Each person committed to a state hospital shall also have the following rights, a list of which shall be prominently posted in the predominant languages of the community and explained in a language or modality accessible to the patient in all facilities providing those services and otherwise brought to his or her attention by any additional means as the Director of State Hospitals may designate by regulation:

(a)

To wear his or her own clothes; to keep and use his or her own personal possessions including his or her toilet articles; and to keep and be allowed to spend a reasonable sum of his or her own money for canteen expenses and small purchases.

(b)

To have access to individual storage space for his or her private use.

(c)

To see visitors each day.

(d)

To have reasonable access to telephones, both to make and receive confidential calls or to have such calls made for them.

(e)

To have ready access to letterwriting materials, including stamps, and to mail and receive unopened correspondence.

(f)

To refuse convulsive treatment including, but not limited to, any electroconvulsive treatment, any treatment of the mental condition which depends on the induction of a convulsion by any means, and insulin coma treatment.

(g)

To refuse psychosurgery. Psychosurgery is defined as 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 any of the following:

(1)

Modification or control of thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior rather than the treatment of a known and diagnosed physical disease of the brain.

(2)

Modification of normal brain function or normal brain tissue in order to control thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior.

(3)

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.
Psychosurgery does not include prefrontal sonic treatment wherein there is no destruction of brain tissue. The Director of Health Care Services and the Director of State Hospitals shall promulgate appropriate regulations to assure adequate protection of patients’ rights in such treatment.

(h)

To see and receive the services of a patient advocate who has no direct or indirect clinical or administrative responsibility for the person receiving mental health services.

(i)

Other rights, as specified by regulation.
Each patient shall also be given notification in a language or modality accessible to the patient of other constitutional and statutory rights which are found by the State Department of Health Care Services and the State Department of State Hospitals to be frequently misunderstood, ignored, or denied.
Upon admission to a facility each patient, involuntarily detained for evaluation or treatment under provisions of this part, or as a voluntary patient for psychiatric evaluation or treatment to a health facility, as defined in Section 1250 of the Health and Safety Code, in which psychiatric evaluation or treatment is offered, shall immediately be given a copy of a State Department of Health Care Services prepared patients’ rights handbook. Each person committed to a state hospital, upon admission, shall immediately be given a copy of a State Department of State Hospitals prepared patients’ rights handbook.
The State Department of Health Care Services and the State Department of State Hospitals shall prepare and provide the forms specified in this section. The State Department of Health Care Services shall prepare and provide the forms specified in Section 5157.
The rights specified in this section may not be waived by the person’s parent, guardian, or conservator.

Source: Section 5325, https://leginfo.­legislature.­ca.­gov/faces/codes_displaySection.­xhtml?lawCode=WIC§ionNum=5325.­ (accessed Apr. 24, 2025).

Last Updated

Apr. 24, 2025

§ 5325’s source at ca​.gov