New York Mental Hygiene Law § 81.03 Definitions

(a) “guardian” means a person who is eighteen years of age or older, a corporation, or a public agency, including a local department of social services, appointed in accordance with terms of this article by the supreme court, the surrogate’s court, or the county court to act on behalf of an incapacitated person in providing for personal needs and/or for property management.

(b) “functional level” means the ability to provide for personal needs and/or the ability with respect to property management.

(c) “functional limitations” means behavior or conditions of a person which impair the ability to provide for personal needs and/or property management.

(d) “least restrictive form of intervention” means that the powers granted by the court to the guardian with respect to the incapacitated person represent only those powers which are necessary to provide for that person’s personal needs and/or property management and which are consistent with affording that person the greatest amount of independence and self-determination in light of that person’s understanding and appreciation of the nature and consequences of his or her functional limitations.

(e) “available resources” means resources such as, but not limited to, visiting nurses, homemakers, home health aides, adult day care and multipurpose senior citizen centers, powers of attorney, health care proxies, trusts, representative and protective payees, and residential care facilities.

(f) “personal needs” means needs such as, but not limited to, food, clothing, shelter, health care, and safety.

(g) “property management” means taking actions to obtain, administer, protect, and dispose of real and personal property, intangible property, business property, benefits, and income and to deal with financial affairs.

(h) “activities of daily living” means activities such as, but not limited to, mobility, eating, toileting, dressing, grooming, housekeeping, cooking, shopping, money management, banking, driving or using public transportation, and other activities related to personal needs and to property management.

(i) “major medical or dental treatment” means a medical, surgical or diagnostic intervention or procedure where a general anesthetic is used or which involves any significant risk or any significant invasion of bodily integrity requiring an incision or producing substantial pain, discomfort, debilitation, or having a significant recovery period, or which involves the administration of psychotropic medication or electroconvulsive therapy;  it does not include any routine diagnosis or treatment such as the administration of medications other than chemotherapy for non-psychiatric conditions or nutrition or the extraction of bodily fluids for analysis;  dental care performed with a local anesthetic;  and any procedures which are provided under emergency circumstances, pursuant to section two thousand five hundred four of the public health law.

(j) “life sustaining treatment” means medical treatment which is sustaining life functions and without which, according to reasonable medical judgment, the patient will die within a relatively short time period.

(k) “facility” means a facility, hospital, or school, or an alcoholism facility in this state as such terms are defined in section 1.03 of this chapter, a substance abuse program as such term is defined in article nineteen of this chapter, an adult care facility as such term is defined in section two of the social services law, or a residential health care facility or a general hospital as such terms are defined in section two thousand eight hundred one of the public health law.

(l) “mental hygiene facility” means a facility, hospital, or school, or an alcoholism facility in this state as such terms are defined in section 1.03 of this chapter.