Long and thorough description of how voluntary and involuntary treatment works in the real world...
This is in response to questions I get about how to interact (or not interact) with the inpatient mental health system and involuntary commitment. The table of contents is:
1. How can I get outpatient mental health care without much risk of being involuntarily committed to a hospital?
2: How can I get mental health care at a hospital ER without much risk of being involuntarily committed?
3. I would like to get voluntarily committed to a hospital. How can I do that?
4. I am seeking inpatient treatment. How can I make sure that everyone knows I am there voluntarily, and that I don’t get shifted to involuntary status?
5. How can I decide which psychiatric hospital to go to?
6. I am in a psychiatric hospital. How can I make this experience as comfortable as possible?
7. I am in a psychiatric hospital and not happy about it and I want to get out as quickly as possible. What should I do?
8. I am in the psychiatric hospital and I think I am being mistreated. What can I do?
9. I think my friend/family member is in the psychiatric hospital, but nobody will tell me anything.
10. My friend/family member is in the psychiatric hospital and wants to get out as quickly as possible. How can I help them?
11. How will I pay for all of this?
12. I have a friend/family member who really needs psychiatric treatment, but refuses to get it. What can I do?
I am a psychiatrist, which both means I have some useful experience here, and makes it hard for people trying to avoid the system to trust me. Anything written with too much honesty risks degenerating into “here’s how to cheat the system so nobody will know you’re about to commit suicide”. But anything written with too little honesty risks degenerating into some variation of “trust the wise benevolent doctors to do what is best for you”. This is an impossible edge to balance on, and I am sure I fail at one point or another.