There has to be a compromise somewhere. On the one hand, people shouldn’t be locked up based only on a family member’s say-so. That’s a power that could be abused. Most people suffering from mental illness (manic depression, etc.) are not a danger to anyone. On the other hand, some people (like this man) really are a danger to themselves and other people.
I grew up in a town that was the location of a “state hospital.” Outpatients were placed in the community. It was an interesting place to live, to say the least, with the occasional pedestrian breaking into dance in the middle of the street, or some stranger walking up to you and saying something totally off-the-wall.
But some of my high school classmates also were committed there from time to time, too, by their families for things like drug abuse, for example.
I can tell you one worse. In many states your spouse has a mental breakdown OR a medication reaction the doctor labels as mental illness YOU the spouse have no legal say in the treatment. You can not sign you have no input unless you have a written medical POA. The attending doctors will call the state in and the state decides. This is first hand information not hearsay. My wife had an adverse reaction to antidepressants causing a Serotonin Migration to her brain with symptoms similar to LSD or acute psychosis.
I wanted blood work done and an MRI or CT of her brain. The doctors six to be exact said no. I had no say. I knew something other than mental illness was going on and I proved them right but it took nearly five days. I did what the doctors didn't do I looked up the meds for adverse reactions.
I used to work in a county contracted nursing home in the maintenance dept. The nursing home had about 50 persons from the enlightened exodus from a mental hospital they had been in. One we called Pain and Agony. Give him string and he would tie it around his private and try to hang it. These persons could not function in any environment and needed round the clock watching. Not locked up as such but watched.
I can say this much for certain. In the early 1970's when I was an early teen I could safely walk downtown at night. By 1976 it had changed. Persons were being put out on the street creating significant homeless issues that lead to crime like breaking into vehicles. About that same time my dad began to carry where he worked because he had to park under an interstate bridge and got off at midnight. Today Knoxville, Tennessee is a homeless Mecca known throughout the eastern states. You can look at the sheriffs arrest logs and many are homeless drunk and disorderliness. IOW self medicating with alcohol. It likely has the largest homeless shelter in the southeast. Lots of Administrative wages to be earned running a NPO shelter.
In this article the mans family requested he be checked on. Right now in most states that duty falls upon the LEO's. LEO's are not mental health professionals. A trained team of staff in a mental facility including Orderlies can usually subdue a patient if needed with minimal risk to all but they have Meds they can administer ASAP that work ASAP. Cops Don't. Then again I saw a 4'10" almost 80 year old woman where I used to work take on the entire floor staff of about six.
Sometimes it was funny. One woman on third floor had her own private paid phone. She called 911 and said there was people having a party in her room and a man outside her window dancing naked. The cops showed up because they have too and asked where the patient was. We said third floor and they laughed and told us what was going on. In the mean time she had barricaded herself in the room with the bed LOL.