N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 14, § 85.1 – Background and intent.

(a) This Part is intended to promote the application of the most effective methods by which the mentally ill, mentally retarded and alcoholics may be helped to achieve maximum self-sufficiency while providing for their safety and general well-being to the extent that it does not prevent them from the practice of social skills in the natural round of life.
(b) The purpose of therapeutic programs for the mentally ill or the mentally retarded is to improve the social competence of those they serve. Outpatient or ambulatory programs contribute to the accomplishment of this purpose by fostering the practice of social skills in the natural round of life. There are, however, differences between mental illness and mental retardation which require varying emphases in programs. An essential program component for the mentally ill is psychiatric treatment; for the mentally retarded primary modalities are therapeutic education and training. It is, however, a common purpose addressed to social competence which has led to most development of short-term problem-oriented treatment approaches, group methods, and services to family members together, regardless of the mental condition.
(c) The Mental Hygiene Law requires the certification of any nonresidential or outpatient facility operated by a corporation or a public agency to provide examination, diagnosis, care, treatment, rehabilitation or training to people with a disturbance in behavior, feeling, thinking or judgment so severe as to require care and treatment to people with subaverage intellectual functioning which originates during the developmental period and is associated with impairment in adaptive behavior, or to people who habitually use alcoholic beverages to the extent that this is beyond their control or endangers health, safety or welfare. A number of terms are in common usage to refer to such facilities, among them being psychiatric clinic, mental health clinic, child guidance clinic, day hospital, day training center and alcoholism clinic. In an effort to make more comfortable their utilization by the mentally handicapped, some outpatient facilities have made use of less distinctive titles.
1. (1) While many forms of organized community supportive services available to the general public are of great value to those with mental handicaps as well, and are made available to them as needful members of the general public, this Part is not intended to apply to such services in the absence of a primary purpose to provide services to the mentally disabled as defined in the Mental Hygiene Law.
2. (2) Specialized methods of training the mentally ill and mentally retarded in life skills on an outpatient basis having become an established service for the mentally disabled, this Part is intended to apply to nonresidential facilities which provide day training programs or day treatment programs for the mentally disabled.
(d) This Part prescribes standards for certification. Certification of itself does not confer eligibility to receive financial support from any governmental source.
(e) It is the intent of this Part to foster increased responsibility of outpatient facilities for the mentally disabled to evaluate and review their own services. The number and type of services may vary among different outpatient facilities depending upon local needs, the age groups and diagnostic groups served, the services provided by others in the same geographic area, the availability of staff, and the service capacity of the outpatient facility. This Part does not stipulate any specific modalities of care, staff training and experience or numbers, or admission criteria. They require, however, that the facility prepare an adequate plan for services which addresses these issues and establishes organization policies and procedures which will facilitate implementation of the plan.