Section 863.1 - Assignment of Patients'/Residents' Advocate(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.Cal. Code Regs. Tit. 9, § 863.1