During my puberty and adolescence, my parents were continually threatening to have me committed if I didn’t pull my grades up. I think they first got on that kick because from '68-'84 we lived one town over from a mental hospital; this was in New Jersey. Then from '84-89 we lived in various places in Illinois, but they continued to use this threat. I know there was one time when they probably could have done it, because I bit my mom. Of course, I was just trying to stop her beating on me, but they wouldn’t have admitted that. Anyway, people say that it’s absurdly easy to get your teenager committed, as long as you or your insurance can pay, but I wonder if that’s really true, and how it varies from state to state.
Sorry if that was unpleasant reading.
Side note: I’ve also heard about abuse at survival camps or whatever you call them. When I first heard about these camps back in the '80’s (Outward Bound comes to mind, except I think that’s voluntary, not detention), I thought they were a good idea, on the grounds that Because I Said So is not always going to apply, and it’s healthier to prove oneself and learn that one only gets out of life what one puts into it. But in the '90’s, I read two separate exposes on such camps/programs, claiming that the leaders push the kids beyond all reasonable expectations, asking out-of-shape pubescents to do things trained athletes would have trouble with, and then pushing them even harder as a punishment for the first shortfalls. It was made to sound so lurid, I didn’t want to believe it, but maybe it is true.
Having a child with mental health problems, I know first-hand how difficult it is to have a child actually committed to a mental instituion. The requirements are quite stringent: Psychiatrists are reluctant to commit someone unless their psychiatric problems are severe and untreatable in any other context.
Incarcerating your child in a private instituion is much easier procedurally, but very expensive: $2,000-$5,000 per month.
Well you can’t get them paroles. Thats right, the mother of one of my friends once called up the police and asked them to put her child on parole. Of course, they said no.
In reference to the side note. I went to an Outward Bound canoe/camping retreat voluntarily. It was grueling physically and emotionally but well worth it. I was 17 at the time. It affected me quite a bit and I learned a lot about myself.
However no one was pushed too far. And they warned us to be very fit before the trip.
But I would recommend it to anyone who likes the outdoors.
Some drug offences in VA by young folk does get the kid into a live-in drug treatment program for x number of days and then follow up for y amount of time - might be some insurance co participation.
Aside from this sort of committment I haven’t heard of anything else. Courts still must have the ability to do somthing along these lines but I only see that on TV.
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
To be committed is to have the state mandate that you enter a mental institution. I believe that in these cases they have to pay for it. Putting a child in a private mental institution is simple–they do not have to be "committed’ because the state has nothing to do with it–a parent can insist that a child remain in such a place just as a parent can insist that a child stay at a boarding school or in a traditional hospital for medical care.
Singledad is right, thogh–the private places are unspeakably expensive. Worse, many are little better than scams. Parents with an emotionally distressed child are perhaps the most vunrable people in the world. When you have a child who is out of contol you do not know what to do–there is no source of good, objective advice since every source and doctor you find tells you different things and you have no good way to decide who to trust. Some of these private hospitals for kids really capitilize on that. They present an image of utmost authority and all but promise to make eveything better for $5000 a month. They often think junior will need to be there for a few months, too. Then, they drop dark hints about suicide or “self-destructive behavior” or othersuch things. These days they probably allude to Coulmbine. Parents get the message–pay us or risk your kid’s life.
Sometimes a kid may be so out of control that such a stance is justified, but the cash cows of these places are kids whose parents find a joint or a fifth of whiskey. Parents who have never been exposed to drugs at all are apt to panic, and run down to the hospital. The hospital will often do everything to encourage the idea that one joint is, indeed, a sign of satanism, suicide, and homicidal behavior and that immediate admission is the only solution. In high school I had a number of friends who went through this routine, and not one of them modified thier drug behavior in any way because of the program except to find new friends to buy (sometimes harder) drugs from. And momma was out several grand to pay for these new connections.
The protections of the child or teenager against involuntary commitment are frighteningly thin. In fact, such commitments are often legally considered “voluntary” because they are voluntary on the part of the parents.
Having your kid committed to a state institution is difficult unless the kid has attracted police attention as a disruptive presence. However, if parents happen to have insurance that would pay for inpatient psychiatric treatment, many private bins would be happy enough to help a parent with their problem kid.
(Amazingly enough, their psychiatric problems seem to go into remission appropriate for discharge at roughly the time the insurance coverage ends).
See if you library has a copy of Reality Police by Anthony Brandt; read the chapters about the girl named Sarah and her little stay in the Menninger Clinic in Kansas.
I can tell you this about the '80s. I was going through what turned out to be my worst bout of chronic depression I ever experienced (knock on wood) and was nailed with a dime bag of reefer that I hadn’t had the energy to smoke in three weeks (it was well hidden, too). I split town, and later was informed that I had the red carpet waiting for me at St. Alban’s Mental Institution should I have returned as a juvenile.
I had split back to a more civilized part of the country to stay with a different parent who had a comprehensive health care plan. I was promptly diagnosed as a “classic case of parental manipulation,” and the psychologist recommended I be sent to–you guessed it–an institution. Fortunately, that’s when narcoleptic symptoms set in, and someone decided to take a blood test. It’s been all uphill from there.
My point is that it at least was all too easy to have a kid committed when I was growing up. I don’t know if it is the same now, but if you’re an out-of-control young adult facing that option, do yourself a favor and demand a triglyceride test, and a second opinion. Your future may rely on it.
As a troubled adolescent, I gravitated to the same, and am friends with many to this day. Invariably, the ones who went into the system are not doing as well as the ones who did not. Some were raped, some learned how to be better criminals, some were kept institutionalized so long that they have been fighting a losing battle to claim viable job skills because of the time lost. Not one completed college, whereas I and other friends like me have. This, obviously, is an anecdotal and emotionally charged observation, and should not be taken as conclusive evidence against the process.
But I know this: I would not be here today had I been allowed to go into a bureaucratic system that claims to improve mental health. Send your bad kids to a mean uncle, for God’s sake, if you feel you have no other means of recourse. Or just kick them the hell out. If your kid is really insane, he will find his way into the exact same rehabilitative system he would have had you voluntarily placed him there, but free of charge. If he doesn’t, you’ve done a permanent disservice to him by placing him there.
Is that a joke? I don’t think someone can be put on parole unless they’ve been convicted and given a sentence to be paroled from. Maybe she meant “probation”, but again, one would have to be charged with an offense to be sentenced to probation.
Jois…Also in Virginia, a young first time non-violent offender is frequently sentenced to “boot camp”- a military-like facility where they supposedly learn respect and do a lot of growing up fast. I don’t know about the other states, but Va. has had a lot of success with this program.
In Virginia it is very hard to have your child committed. They call it a “green warrant”. If the child is over 13 a parent cannot even have them drug tested without their consent. In order to obtain a green warrant the person must be determined to be a danger to others or themselves. Once the person is “picked up” then a hearing is set before a judge. The judge will then determine if the person needs to remain in custody.
In Florida we have the “Baker Act” the requirements are pretty specific. In order to involuntarily commit someone to a private hospital, the person must be a danger to themselves or others and refuse treatment. For a state hospital it usually requires several previous inpatient stays at a private hospital.
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