§ 78B.002.Construction of Chapter

A construction provision correcting an inference the chapter would otherwise invite.

This chapter may not be construed to prohibit a first responder from performing a wellness check.

The inference it forecloses is a natural one. The chapter’s operative provision gives a first responder limited liability for refusing to provide a wellness check at a civil commitment facility — and a statute that protects refusal reads, at a glance, as discouraging the check.

This says otherwise. Refusing is protected; performing remains entirely permissible.

The distinction matters because the chapter is about allocation, not prohibition. Civil commitment facilities house people committed as sexually violent predators, and the question the chapter answers is who bears the risk when a local first responder is asked to enter one — not whether they may.

Without this section a first responder might reasonably hesitate, reading the chapter as legislative discouragement, in a situation where someone may need help. That would be the opposite of a sensible result.

The provision protects the responder who acts, by removing an argument that the chapter established a policy against performing these checks — an argument that could otherwise surface if something went wrong during one.

The referral provision that follows completes the scheme, directing a first responder who declines to refer the matter to the Texas Civil Commitment Office — which has the trained staff and the statutory responsibility for these facilities.

So the chapter offers a route rather than a wall: perform the check, or decline and refer.