(a) Each county mental health director shall assign a Patients' Advocate to handle complaints of mentally disabled patients and residents regarding the abuse, unreasonable denial, or punitive withholding of a right guaranteed under Section 861 of this article. Each regional center director shall assign a Residents' Advocate to handle similar complaints from developmentally disabled residents. If the person assigned to handle complaints is a member of the staff of a particular facility, he shall not be involved in the direct supervision of patients or residents of that facility.
(b) The appointment of a Patients'/Residents' Advocate in a state hospital, as well as the complaint procedure to be observed there, shall be in accordance with Department of Health directives on the patients' rights program for state hospitals.