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Official Code of Georgia Annotated

Title 37. MENTAL HEALTH · Chapter 13. COMMUNITY LIVING ARRANGEMENTS · Article 2. ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION WITHIN COMMUNITY LIVING ARRANGEMENT

37-13-25. Disclosures.

Active

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

Effective January 1, 2026.In force today: Effective January 1, 2026.
  1. The identities of the resident or former resident, the alleged perpetrator, and the person or persons making a report or providing information or evidence pursuant to this article shall not be disclosed to the public unless required to be revealed in court proceedings or upon the written consent of the person whose identity is to be revealed or as otherwise required by law. Upon the resident’s or the former resident’s, or his or her representative’s, request, the department shall make information obtained in an abuse or exploitation report and investigation available to the allegedly abused or exploited resident, the allegedly abused or exploited former resident, or his or her representative for inspection or duplication, except that such disclosure shall be made without revealing the identity of any other resident, the person making the report, or persons providing information by name or inference. For the purpose of this Code section, the term “representative” means any person authorized in writing by the resident or former resident or appointed by an appropriate court to act upon the resident’s or former resident’s behalf. The term “representative” also means a family member of a deceased or physically or mentally impaired resident or former resident unable to grant authorization; provided, however, that such family members who do not have written or court authorization shall not be authorized by this Code section to receive the resident’s or former resident’s clinical records as defined in Code Section 37-3-1, 37-4-2, or 37-7-1. Nothing in this Code section shall be construed to deny agencies participating in joint investigations at the request of and with the department, or conducting separate investigations of abuse or exploitation within an agency’s scope of authority, or law enforcement personnel who are conducting an investigation into any criminal offense in which a resident or former resident is a victim from having access to such records.

Reading note: a word broken across two lines in the printed volume was joined by rule and could not be checked against the volume's own vocabulary. The official page linked below settles any doubt.

The notes below are printed with the section but are not enacted law (O.C.G.A. § 1-1-1(c)). They are shown apart from the text.

History

Code 1981, § 37-13-25, enacted by Ga. L. 2025, p. 177, § 4-1/HB 584, effective January 1, 2026.

Read the official page (the state's PDF, opened at the page this text was read from).

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

Text read from t37-t39-(v28)-pdf.pdf, Volume V28, 2021 edition, 2025 supplement, pages 158 to 159; merge action: added; file SHA-256 6e7899178423.

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O.C.G.A. § 37-13-25. Disclosures. | Georgia Commons