The real shame here is that the guy obviously has issues, yet was able to sign out and leave WGH.
For those not familiar with PA statutes, a person age 14 or over can sign a 302 voluntary treatment form, but can also revoke it and must be released within 72 hours, unless the hospital believes that additional treatment is warranted, in which case court intervention is required for involuntary exam and treatment.
Methinks the ball was dropped-just glad that he didn’t kill his parents or any other innocent party.
Easy there, my friend. I can tell you that one thing that kept me from calling my psychiatrist when I was severely depressed and suicidal a couple of years ago was my fear that she would have me involuntarily committed. I managed to get through that particular day or night on my own, but I probably would have been better off calling her. I’m rather glad it takes extraordinary measures to involuntarily commit someone, since I’m not sure they’d let me have access to the internet in a mental hospital. The growth of the internet is something which has come about in the years since I was hospitalized for depression.
As for this kid, I think I’ve only used this smiley once, but this time, it’s appropriate: :wally . And to think a friend of mine grumbled at me because I gave him anything for Christmas!
You know how people always say “Thanks a lot, you owe me a new monitor because I just spit water/Coke/tea/booze all over this one?” Well, I’d always thought that was just an expression until I read your comment, Eve. So, thanks a lot, you owe me a new monitor because I just spit water all over this one.
I’m not really sure we’re disagreeing, Seige. First, I can appreciate and respect reluctance to self-commit under the PA 302 regulations, and don’t argue against involuntary 302 unless backed with adequate evidence of potential harm to self and/or others.
My issue here is that WGH had an obligation to this person who had signed himself in the previous night, and elected to sign out the following AM. That short of a turnaround strongly suggests (to me) that the hospital failed the patient by not seeking an involuntary 302 commit. How well could a psych or MHMR clinician have built a file on this person in that short a space of time, particularly on a holiday weekend when staffing is reduced?
No problem. It’s a complicated issue and one that’s probably not suited to the Pit. I’ve been told my hospitalization was ending before I was able to function independently (fortunately, I had good friends who took me in hand) and I’ve spent 24 hours in the locked ward. I’ve also spoken to a friend hours after she checked herself out of a mental hospital against her doctor’s advice and despite her husband’s telling her he would leave her if she did so. It was terrifying, but the particulars of her medical condition at the time left her convinced she knew better than her doctors and she was very determined, although fortunately the only person she was a danger to was herself. No one was hurt and her marriage survived the incident.
Better to let 100,000 potentially dangerous nutcases loose on their own recognizance than involuntarily incarcerate one person who hasn’t done anything wrong and isn’t going to just because you think they conceivably might.
Or, if you disagree with that, why not dispense with due process for alleged violations of law? Most studies show that the overwhelming majority of people thought by police officers to be up to no good are in fact up to no good, why not just agree that that’s sufficient and pop them in jail and be done with it?
And if you’d find that objectionable, take a moment to consider, from a general civil-rights perspective, whether you really want to be able to reduce any person’s right to due process and protection against unprovoked detention through the simple act of having one staff psychiatrist offer the opinion that that person is “mentally ill”?
And studies also show psychiatrists are miserably inaccurate predictors of a person’s dangerousness, btw — only marginally better than dice-roll or coin-flipping.
