
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov]
[Laws in effect as of January 23, 2000]
[Document affected by Public Law 106-310 Section 3201(b)(1)]
[CITE: 42USC242a]

 
                 TITLE 42--THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
 
                    CHAPTER 6A--PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
 
                SUBCHAPTER II--GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES
 
                   Part A--Research and Investigations
 
Sec. 242a. Mental health


(a) Clinical training and instruction and clinical traineeships; 
        stipends and allowances; research projects

    In carrying out the purposes of section 241 of this title with 
respect to mental health--
        (1) the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Center for 
    Mental Health Services, is authorized to provide clinical training 
    and instruction and to establish and maintain clinical traineeships 
    (with such stipends and allowances (including travel and subsistence 
    expenses and dependency allowances) for the trainees as the 
    Secretary may deem necessary);
        (2) the Surgeon General is authorized to make grants to State or 
    local agencies, laboratories, and other public or nonprofit agencies 
    and institutions, and to individuals for investigations, 
    experiments, demonstrations, studies, and research projects with 
    respect to the development of improved methods of diagnosing mental 
    illness, and of care, treatment, and rehabilitation of the mentally 
    ill, including grants to State agencies responsible for 
    administration of State institutions for care, or care and 
    treatment, of mentally ill persons for developing and establishing 
    improved methods of operation and administration of such 
    institutions.

(b) Effect of treaties and other international agreements on 
        confidentiality

    Nothing in the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the Convention 
on Psychotropic Substances, or other treaties or international 
agreements shall be construed to limit, modify, or prevent the 
protection of the confidentiality of patient records or of the names and 
other identifying characteristics of research subjects as provided by 
any Federal, State, or local law or regulation.

(c) Grants to public and other nonprofit institutions

    The Secretary may provide for training, instruction, and 
traineeships under subsection (a)(1) of this section through grants to 
public and other nonprofit institutions. Grants under paragraph (2) of 
subsection (a) of this section may be made only upon recommendation of 
the National Advisory Mental Health Council. Such grants may be paid in 
advance or by way of reimbursement, as may be determined by the Surgeon 
General; and shall be made on such conditions as the Surgeon General 
finds necessary.

(d) Obligatory service for traineeships

    (1) Any individual who has received a clinical traineeship, in 
psychology, psychiatry, nursing, marital and family therapy, counseling, 
or social work, under subsection (a)(1) of this section that was not of 
a limited duration or experimental nature (as determined by the 
Secretary) is obligated to serve, in service determined by the Secretary 
to be appropriate in the light of the individual's training and 
experience, at the rate of one year for each year (or academic year, 
whichever the Secretary determines to be appropriate) of the 
traineeship.
    (2) The service required under paragraph (1) shall be performed--
        (A) for a public inpatient mental institution providing 
    inpatient care or any entity receiving a grant under the Mental 
    Health Systems Act [42 U.S.C. 9401 et seq.],
        (B) in a health professional shortage area (as determined under 
    subpart II of part D of this subchapter),
        (C) in any other area or for any other entity designated by the 
    Secretary, or
        (D) in a Federal or State correctional facility,

and shall begin within such period after the termination of the 
traineeship as the Secretary may determine. In developing criteria for 
determining for which institutions or entities or in which areas, 
referred to in the preceding sentence, individuals must perform service 
under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall give preference to 
institutions, entities, or areas which in his judgment have the greatest 
need for personnel to perform that service. The Secretary may permit 
service for or in other institutions, entities, or areas if the 
Secretary determines that the request for such service is supported by 
good cause.
    (3) Any individual who fails to perform the service required under 
this subsection within the period prescribed by the Secretary is 
obligated to repay to the United States an amount equal to three times 
the cost of the traineeship (including stipends and allowances) plus 
interest at the maximum legal rate at the time of payment of the 
traineeship, multiplied, in any case in which the service so required 
has been performed in part, by the percentage which the length of the 
service not so performed is of the length of the service so required to 
be performed.
    (4)(A) In the case of any individual any part of whose obligation to 
perform service under this subsection exists at the same time as any 
part of the individual's obligation to perform service under section 
254m or 254n of this title (because of receipt of a scholarship under 
subpart II of part D of this subchapter) or the individual's obligation 
to perform service under section 288 \1\ of this title (because of 
receipt of a National Research Service Award), or both, the same service 
may not be used to any extent to meet more than one of those 
obligations.
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    \1\ See Codification note below.
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    (B) In any case to which subparagraph (A) is applicable and in which 
one of the obligations is to perform service under section 254m or 254n 
of this title, the obligation to perform service under that section must 
be met (by performance of the required service or payment of damages) 
before the obligation to perform service under this subsection or under 
section 288 \1\ of this title.
    (C) In any case to which subparagraph (A) is applicable, if any part 
of the obligation to perform service under section 288 \1\ of this title 
exists at the same time as any part of the obligation to perform service 
under this subsection, the manner and time of meeting each obligation 
shall be prescribed by the Secretary.
    (5) In disseminating application forms to individuals desiring 
traineeships, the Secretary shall include with such forms a fair summary 
of the liabilities under this subsection of an individual who receives a 
traineeship.

(July 1, 1944, ch. 373, title III, Sec. 303, as added July 3, 1946, ch. 
538, Sec. 7(c), 60 Stat. 423; amended Aug. 2, 1956, ch. 871, title V, 
Sec. 501, 70 Stat. 929; Pub. L. 91-513, title I, Sec. 3(a), Oct. 27, 
1970, 84 Stat. 1241; Pub. L. 93-282, title I, Sec. 122(b), May 14, 1974, 
88 Stat. 132; Pub. L. 93-348, title I, Sec. 104(a)(2), July 12, 1974, 88 
Stat. 346; Pub. L. 95-633, title I, Sec. 108(b), Nov. 10, 1978, 92 Stat. 
3773; Pub. L. 96-398, title VIII, Sec. 803(a), Oct. 7, 1980, 94 Stat. 
1607; Pub. L. 100-177, title II, Sec. 202(a), Dec. 1, 1987, 101 Stat. 
996; Pub. L. 100-607, title I, Sec. 163(1)(A), Nov. 4, 1988, 102 Stat. 
3062; Pub. L. 100-690, title II, Sec. 2058(b), Nov. 18, 1988, 102 Stat. 
4214; Pub. L. 101-597, title IV, Sec. 401(b)[(a)], Nov. 16, 1990, 104 
Stat. 3035; Pub. L. 102-321, title I, Sec. 115(b), July 10, 1992, 106 
Stat. 348; Pub. L. 102-408, title III, Sec. 305, Oct. 13, 1992, 106 
Stat. 2084; Pub. L. 105-392, title IV, Sec. 403, Nov. 13, 1998, 112 
Stat. 3588.)

                       References in Text

    The Mental Health Systems Act, referred to in subsec. (d)(2)(A), is 
Pub. L. 96-398, Oct. 7, 1980, 96 Stat. 1564, as amended, which is 
classified principally to chapter 102 (Sec. 9401 et seq.) of this title. 
For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title 
note set out under section 9401 of this title and Tables.

                          Codification

    Section 288 of this title, referred to in subsec. (d)(4), in the 
original referred to section 472, meaning section 472 of the Public 
Health Service Act, which was classified to section 289l-1 of this 
title. Title IV of the Public Health Service Act was amended generally 
by section 2 of Pub. L. 99-158, Nov. 20, 1985, 99 Stat. 822, and 
provisions formerly contained in section 472 were restated in section 
487 of the Public Health Service Act, which is classified to section 288 
of this title.


                               Amendments

    1998--Subsec. (d)(1). Pub. L. 105-392 inserted ``counseling,'' after 
``family therapy,''.
    1992--Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 102-321, Sec. 115(b)(1), struck out ``, 
the Surgeon General is authorized'' after ``health'' in introductory 
provisions.
    Subsec. (a)(1). Pub. L. 102-321, Sec. 115(b)(2), inserted ``the 
Secretary, acting through the Director of the Center for Mental Health 
Services, is authorized'' after ``(1)''.
    Subsec. (a)(2). Pub. L. 102-321, Sec. 115(b)(3), inserted ``the 
Surgeon General is authorized'' after ``(2)''.
    Subsec. (d)(2)(D). Pub. L. 102-408 added subpar. (D).
    1990--Subsec. (d)(2)(B). Pub. L. 101-597 substituted ``health 
professional shortage area'' for ``health manpower shortage area''.
    1988--Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 100-607 redesignated concluding 
provisions which permitted Secretary to authorize persons engaged in 
research on mental health to protect privacy of individuals who are 
subject of such research by withholding names of such individuals, and 
which prohibited compulsion of persons so authorized to identify such 
individuals in any court or other proceedings, as subsec. (d) of section 
241 of this title.
    Subsec. (d)(1). Pub. L. 100-690 inserted ``marital and family 
therapy,'' after ``nursing,''.
    1987--Subsec. (d)(4). Pub. L. 100-177 made technical amendment to 
references to ``section 254m or 254n of this title'' in two places and 
substituted ``subpart II of Part D of this subchapter'' for ``subpart IV 
of Part C of subchapter V of this chapter'' to reflect renumbering of 
corresponding provisions of original act.
    1980--Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 96-398 added subsec. (d).
    1978--Subsecs. (b), (c). Pub. L. 95-633 added subsec. (b) and 
redesignated former subsec. (b) as (c).
    1974--Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 93-282 substituted ``mental health, 
including research on the use and effect of alcohol and other 
psychoactive drugs'' for ``the use and effect of drugs''.
    Subsec. (a)(1). Pub. L. 93-348, Sec. 104(a)(2)(A), inserted 
``clinical'' before ``training and instruction'' and ``traineeships'' 
and substituted ``(with such stipends and allowances (including travel 
and subsistence expenses and dependency allowances) for the trainees as 
the Secretary may deem necessary)'' for ``, in accordance with the 
provisions of section 289c(a) of this title''.
    Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 93-348, Sec. 104(a)(2)(B), authorized Secretary 
to provide for training, instruction, and traineeships under subsection 
(a)(1) of this section through grants to public and other nonprofit 
institutions.
    1970--Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 91-513 inserted provisions authorizing 
withholding of information concerning identity of persons who are 
subjects of research on use and effect of drugs.
    1956--Subsec. (a). Act Aug. 2, 1956, substituted provisions of par. 
(1) relating to traineeships in accordance with section 289c(a) of this 
title and par. (2) relating to grants for research and improved 
operation of mental institutions for provisions relating to admission of 
study patients, including patients from St. Elizabeths Hospital, to the 
National Institute of Mental Health.
    Subsec. (b). Act Aug. 2, 1956, substituted provisions relating to 
recommendation of grants by Council and payment by Surgeon General for 
provisions relating to mental health training.


                    Effective Date of 1992 Amendment

    Amendment by Pub. L. 102-321 effective Oct. 1, 1992, with provision 
for programs providing financial assistance, see section 801(c), (d) of 
Pub. L. 102-321, set out as a note under section 236 of this title.


                    Effective Date of 1990 Amendment

    Section 501 of Pub. L. 101-597 provided that: ``This Act and the 
amendments made by this Act [enacting sections 254f-1, 254o-1, and 254r 
of this title, amending this section, sections 254d to 254i, 254k, 254l 
to 254q-1, 254s, 294h, 294n, 294aa, 295g-1, 296m, 1320c-5, 1395l, 1395u, 
1395x, 3505d, and 9840 of this title, and section 2123 of Title 10, 
Armed Forces, and enacting provisions set out as notes under sections 
201, 254l-1, and 254o of this title] shall take effect October 1, 1990, 
or upon the date of the enactment of this Act [Nov. 16, 1990], whichever 
occurs later.''


                    Effective Date of 1980 Amendment

    Section 803(b) of Pub. L. 96-398 provided that: ``The amendment made 
by subsection (a) [amending this section] applies in the case of any 
academic year (of any traineeship awarded under section 303(a)(1) of the 
Public Health Service Act [subsec. (a)(1) of this section]) beginning 
after the date of the enactment of this Act [Oct. 7, 1980] if the award 
for such academic year is made after such date.''


                    Effective Date of 1978 Amendment

    Amendment by Pub. L. 95-633 effective on date Convention on 
Psychotropic Substances enters into force in the United States, see 
section 112 of Pub. L. 95-633, set out as an Effective Date note under 
section 801a of Title 21, Food and Drugs. Convention on Psychotropic 
Substances entered into force for the United States on July 15, 1980.


                    Effective Date of 1974 Amendment

    Amendment by Pub. L. 93-348 not applicable with respect to 
commitments made before July 12, 1974, by the Secretary of Health, 
Education, and Welfare for research training, see section 104(b) of Pub. 
L. 93-348, set out as a note under section 241 of this title.


                    Effective Date of 1956 Amendment

    Amendment by act Aug. 2, 1956, effective July 1, 1956, see section 
503 of act Aug. 2, 1956.

                          Transfer of Functions

    Office of Surgeon General abolished by section 3 of Reorg. Plan No. 
3 of 1966, eff. June 25, 1966, 31 F.R. 8855, 80 Stat. 1610, and 
functions thereof transferred to Secretary of Health, Education, and 
Welfare by section 1 of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1966, set out as a note 
under section 202 of this title. Secretary of Health, Education, and 
Welfare redesignated Secretary of Health and Human Services by section 
509(b) of Pub. L. 96-88 which is classified to section 3508(b) of Title 
20, Education.


                   Termination of Advisory Committees

    Pub. L. 93-641, Sec. 6, Jan. 4, 1975, 88 Stat. 2275, set out as a 
note under section 217a of this title, provided that an advisory 
committee established pursuant to the Public Health Service Act shall 
terminate at such time as may be specifically prescribed by an Act of 
Congress enacted after Jan. 4, 1975.

                  Section Referred to in Other Sections

    This section is referred to in section 290bb-31 of this title; title 
21 section 850.
