oldr_n_wsr wrote:involuntary confinement and observation for up to 72 hours in a mental health facility for someone who, by their words, mental condition, or physical action, is deemed to be "... a hazard to themselves or to others" ?
They kept me for 4 days in the hospital (full time guard) and then 8 days in the psych ward.
Don't know if I could have just gotten up and walked out.
If you were on a NY 5150 hold, they'd have to have gotten court permission to hold you beyond 72 hours against your will.
If you'd not fought the initial 72 hold based on your crisis status at admission, you converted to a voluntary admission - still protected under all the same laws, but not subject to automatic judicial oversight.
I'm assuming if you were on a locked psych ward that's why there were security, as in addition to you there were certainly involuntary and criminal suspect psych hold patients in the same ward.
As to whether they would have let you walk out as a voluntary admission; that depends on what your docs actually felt was your status at the moment, I would guess. If they felt you met the 72 hour criteria still, I believe they could invoke it again if you tried to leave, thus becoming an involuntary admission at that point. Then the process of judicial oversight would be triggered.
These laws are very strong on the side of patient rights in many jurisdictions - especially progressive places like NY, CA, MA, etc. Whether they are being implemented in every case in a manner which would bear strict scrutiny is very likely another matter entirely, as with all else in the American injustice system.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
were alcoholics/addicts. There were some heavy depression and a rage-a-holic "patient" too. That guy was a pure psychopath. He lasted about 5 hours before he started in then was restrained and removed from the ward.
