I feel that hubby should definitely take to hospital – there had to be concerns or signs of “doom” type behavior for hubby to question. Better to be safe than sorry. My motto is “when in doubt, check it out!” do what your better instincts are telling you.

How does HIPAA affect this?

Sometimes the most loving thing we cando for our spouse and/or children is to create a “reaity check” that can’t be denied or ignored. In my mind,this goes back to the question of treating metal illness on equal footing as a physical malady. If it was the body more than the mind in crisis, one probably wouldn’t even question the appropriate action. For example, if an individual had an obvious heart attck or was bleeding uncontrollably due to an accident, the ER is EXACTLY where most of us would turn even if our spouse or child didn’t want to go. Could ETs not help in this kind of scenario as well if no psychiatrist is already treating this individual.? Calling 911 and being candid abouth the “nature of the emergency” should result in bringing trained professionals to the scene, should it not? Although individuals often fight ER visits even if the problem is 100% physical, the ability of first responders to talk to ER personnel for guidance usually results in transport regardless if those trained professionals deem it to be necessary. It might not be the ideal solution, but it’s been my experience that loved ones will sometimes listen to the objectivity of “outsiders” when they refuse to heed family members.

Going through the ER, involuntarily, is not only the most traumatic of experiences a mental health patient can experience, it has the most far reaching of consequences, and is the most expensive. I believe there should be special protocals to gently bring a person in a mental health crisis to a mental health facility. If this proves impossible, then mental health professionals should be willing and able to go to the patients home and offer treatment which will enable the patient to either safely remain at home or safely, without mental or physical trauma, to go to a mental health facility. ER’s can often be the most traumatic of places. Even if the local ER is a safe place, a person in mental crisis will most likely perceive going to the ER to be an extreme and fearful experience. Calling 911 ordinarily brings policemen, not mental health professionals, into the already unstable person’s home, generally causing them to panic. Is it somehow Illegal to be in a mental health crisis? Then why are there cops every where? This person has probably done nothing illegal. How traumatic for him/her!
This is, quite simply, a tragic, traumatic thing to make both family/friends and the confused, and now terrified person to do.
We must stop making it illegal to be mentally ill, as it appears we do. We must stop treating a person with a broken heart/mind like they merely have a broken leg, or like they have done something wrong.
I know whereof I speak. I have been through the ER, been through both voluntary and involuntary commitment, been arrested and put in jail, having harmed neither myself or anyone else when all that is needed are special, gentle, professionally written protocals for handling persons in mental health crises. We now force these poor, confused people to say they want to hurt someone, just to get… what? Thrown in jail, sounds like they’re are going to jail or some kind of lockup to me. At the very least could we send plain clothes policeman, the kind without all the guns and clubs,instead of the kind we see beating on people, shooting at people and arresting people, putting them in all kinds of lockups, the kind of “peace” officers we see on every TV in America.
The mentally ill are, generally, the most peaceful of people. The want to stay home and try to relax, or just take a walk, remember to take their pills right, to try to calm the chaos in their heart and soul and mind. And when things get a little scary, what can they do? What if its after Dr.’s hours, or on a weekend?