Replies

And you are totally missing my point. What if the person needs to be in the hospital and says NO? What can you do even as a spouse? LEGALLY YOU CAN'T DO NOTHING! YOU CAN'T TAKE THEM THERE AGAINST THEIR WILL AND SAY PLEASE HELP. YOU HAVE NO LEGAL STANDING TO DO SO UNLESS YOU HAVE A MEDICAL POWER OF ATTORNEY THAT SPECIFICALLY STATES YOU CAN MAKE THESE DECISIONS FOR THEM IF THEY CAN'T.

IF your family member breaks a leg or neck, needs a heart transplant, has a stroke, you can sign permission for treatment even surgery. The laws of treatment for mental illness are not the same. I've told you plainly how it works. That doesn't mean I agree with it I'm just telling you the legal facts.

The family knew the man, they likely knew what it would take to get him help and took the only legal and allowed remedy available to them to get him needed help.

So when does family finally get input? When at the hospital the state or county mental health crisis team shows up. They will probably listen to you. No one else will. Again I do not agree with this as a protocol I'm just saying how it is.

So who should respond then? IMO a team of medical staff of at least a Nurse and two orderlies from a mental hospital who have the training, skills, experience, and MEDICATIONS ON THEIR PERSON to if needed safely get the person to needed help. That was the old system and it worked.

Thank liberal lawmakers, activist judges, and patients rights lawyers, for getting it put off on the Cops and the government calling the shots. Many counties including my own rural one the deputies likely take at least one person a day to a mental facility. In most cases it all goes OK. It is when the patient become combative all hell breaks loose. You don't hear about the thousands of routine transports done daily each day by law enforcement that are successful. Why a cop? Because the patient is handcuffed and placed in the back seat where they can not hurt anyone. Again the paramedics in most places do not transport mental health patients.

ONLY IF THE PATIENT IS WILLING & MENTALLY CAPABLE TO SIGN FOR THEMSELVES PERMISSION FOR TREATMENT CAN YOU TAKE THEM IN AND GET THEM HELP ON YOUR OWN. If not you are S.O.L. Only LEO can take over.

Look dude, I have had some experience in such situations with relatives. They all said no initially, but we achieved what needed to be done without calling the cops.

I do have power of attorney for people in my immediate family, because that is the logical, smart, and well prepared thing to do.

The cops can’t do anything that the family can’t, cops are more likely to shoot the person, and cops are not likely to be as persuasive as a trusted family member.

I do agree that using medical personnel trained to deal with such individuals is better than the current system.

Calling the cops turns a bad situation into a potentially deadly situation. I wouldn’t do it. Ymmv.

I want to add a little more hear so maybe some will understand. My wife began having hallucinations and was not in her right mind. I took her to the ER myself. I had to take her because she is an incomplete quadriplegic. When we got there the attending ER doctor without so much as blood drawn said transfer to a mental hospital and he contacted the state Mobile Crisis Team. They were the ones who could order it. I said what about test. He said no. She had a stroke and heart history that warranted this but he didn't do it.

I called our daughters and when I went back in she was unconscious in an exam room curtains close, guard outside and still in her wheelchair. I found her and said get help in here STAT. A nurse came in and said OMG. The doctor walks in and I yelled do something mental illness doesn't cause this. He said NO. I said you Stupid ****. My dad and I loaded her up in the van and took off for hospital ER number 2. She arrive unresponsive and unconscious. They got her conscious and asked me what happened. I told them and again they said Transfer. I made my concerns known and they were dismissed. Mobile Crisis showed up after 12 hours and I talked to them. They said No to the transfer after I explained her history.

In five days time no blood work got done no scans were done. But they took her off all meds but but gave her Ativan. In about three days she was normal. In walks a shrink we had never seen before. He said increase the Zoloft. Next day at noon in walks nurses and gives her the pill. At 1:00 an hour later she was back where she was hallucinating again. Even though a quad she has fair arm and hand movement. She had to be restrained to the bed to prevent beating herself black and blue.

I went home to get some sleep and my dad stayed. I stopped off at the hospital chapel and said some prayers then went home. I got on line and looked up Zoloft +Trazodone +Adverse reactions that is how I found out what was wrong it was Serotonin Syndrome.

The hospital knew they had screwed up bad and then did a MRI and found two brain bleeders. One an old one from years past and a second one caused by Serotonin Syndrome. The Mental Health Protocols and Laws Stink that is the problem at hand. The media never addresses this now do they? No but they sure as hell show up for pictures when things go wrong with the Cops are called on to do mental health care.

She still has partial amnesia of the event and can't remember a few events in our life.

I've signed for several surgeries for her. I've signed her name as often as I sign my own with no POA required. But if she has another such episode {very unlikely as the cause was discovered} the laws forbid my say.