I had to work a 96 hr hold tonight.
It took most of the night but maybe person will receive the help s/he needs.
Who else has a bad experience with the mental health officials?
Do any of these people know how hard it is to do this?
Could they make it any harder I really don’t have enough stress in my life, i.e. deal with family, suspect, paperwork and try to talk to 3 people in two different time zones.
Whatever happened to the Mental Heath Coordinator taking care of the paperwork?

I have never heard of this "96 hr hold"

Could you pelase explain what it is?
Thanks!

It’s a commitment order to get someone’s mental status evaluated. 96 hrs. I am not a 100 % sure what takes place in that time but, A person is suppose to be evaluated by Dr.s to see if they are mentally stable.

I listened in on a couple of calls to my workplace tonight that would blow your feeble mind.  

First call:
A woman who has never had any children calling my workplace asking for a free ride to my workplace to pick up her child.

Second call:
She called back.

Thanks to HIPAA, [s]that's all the info I can divulge[/s] I might be prosecuted for that.

Thank your Representatives.

HAND

At least they keep them for a little while.  Often we take someone to mental health and they're back home before I go off shift.  

In Ill, we have a 72-hour version, that requires an MD signoff. LEO's/EMS can initiate a 23 hour eval that can be extended.

Have done it once, with MD on-line, for a pt who was acting WAY out of sorts according to family. Xported her in custody per MD; pt cleared in ER 8 hours later after eval. Nothing weird on tox/drug screen, no stroke.

Musta just been a random activation of the "weerd" factor.

Az has a 72 hours hold that must be approved by a judge. PITA, but can be done.

Pretty mutch what happened the first time I saw this person.

We have what is called a Baker Act.  Allows for a 72 hour hold at the local mental facility.  LEO's and doctors can baker act someone.  All they have to do is threaten bodily harm to themself or not be able to recoginize that they are a danger to themselves.  Got to love Florida

Dan

The nature of the 'business' of mental health is such that it's a revolving door.  We see someone 'in toot' and believe we're helping them and their family by starting the process.  The mental health 'professional' has seen this person before, and if not this particular person, than someon who resembles them (hundreds of times).  For them they know that unless there's some very serious underlying mental health issue, there will be NO long term commitment.  And for that to happen, the person being evaluated pretty much has to commit a serious act of harm against another person.  Otherwise it's 'evaluate and medicate' - then the revolving door syndrome gets going.  The process itself is a tablet of aspirin treating 3rd stage cancer.  

Most states have reduced the beds and facilities available for mental cases, those few that are available have the truly profoundly disturbed occupying them.  There's also been a shift to mainstreaming (releasing) patients.  You going through the motions of a hold gets you no respect, because the mental health folks have no respect for the system that mandates it - not you in particular.

I worked on that side for over a year, it's ugly and mind-numbing - glad I'm on the other end of it now.

I really get tired of tring to (per-say)help these people.
I have fallen into the mindset that if they actually try it good worth the paper work, but other than that it's just a waste of my time an taxpayer money.(90% of them are on medicad)(Medicad= state-payed medical beni)
Piss on my boots and tell me its raining!

California has a 72 hour 515o Welfare and Institutions Code hold.  They have to be a danger to themself or others.
We hook them and take them to the Emergency room.  We call a mental health worker to respond.  They take forever to respond, couple of hours, and then they rarely commit them to a mental health hospital.
We deal with one of our nutcases on a regular basis who has tried numerous times to kill himself.  He comes from a family of six-toed, banjo playing inbreds.
He has: OD'd on pills numeorus times
tried eating a plastic fork in jail, tried cutting off his penis with a plastic butterknife, and a broken safety razor, tried hanging himself in the holding cell, and squeezed his testicle until it POPPED!
We had to fight him again about a week ago.  We took him to the ER to be evaluated.  He claimed he ate broken glass to kill himself "because God told him to".  They did an X-ray and found his stomach and bowels full of broken glass.  He was admitted for observation but mental health never admitted him to a psych ward.  He was downtown the next day.  The system sucks!

depends on the county, san diego did a pretty good job of taking them off our hands.  of course they were back on the streets in 72 hours...