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paulnbruce t1_iy9csm2 wrote

As a former police officer, I say Yes. Many of these people need help but refuse to accept it. Many think their fine, you the problem. I worked in retail usually overnight and had many people come in who were homeless and most obviously needed help but would not get it. We could even tell when they stopped taking their meds. The law said nothing the police or even the doctors could do.

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vasjpan02 t1_iy9j56b wrote

concur. i've dealt with confused, cowering folks in withdrawal and it took an hour to convince them to ask for help. and the problem with many mental disorders is they don't accept it as abnormal - they will call it spiritual warfare,conspiracies, or personal preference.

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Evening_Presence_927 t1_iy9jm2s wrote

This isn’t help, though. Psychiatric stays at hospitals stabilize the patient and then discharge them. It doesn’t actually give them a means to stay stable. What they need is a house with supportive programs to keep them clean and give them mental health care.

Leave it to a cop to never realize that not every problem requires a hammer.

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jojobean018 OP t1_iy9movs wrote

So that's what I went through. I had a really bad reaction to a medication I was taking and stayed within 72 hrs. I was discharged and had an appointment with both my psychiatrist and psychologist. World outside of a hospital is much different than being monitored and taken care of buy the medical staff.

I do get that sometimes patients don't want to comply with medication (I've tried different ones and still can't seem to find the one that works for me), so I get that they would want to stop taking medication. However, it's not really productive if they are meandering around and aren't willing to getting help. Mental health is really tough :( This is all very tricky :(

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Evening_Presence_927 t1_iy9u8jy wrote

Sure, but my point is that “involuntary admission” is not actually gonna help people. You have the luxury of having insurance that covers both a psychiatrist and a psychologist. Homeless people don’t get that. Hence my saying. We need something more substantial and long-lasting than throwing them in a psych ward and pumping them full of anti-psychotics until they’re stable just to spit them back out onto the street.

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