ipl-logo

Essay On Involuntary Commitment

989 Words4 Pages

Imagine sitting in the comforts of your own home when your doorbell rings. You answer the door only to find the county sheriff is at your front door, demanding you get in their vehicle for transport to a mental health facility. This unfortunate scenario is common for many people. Often times when someone is seen as dangerous, or unable to care for themselves, family and the people of the community have the ability to file a petition with the probate court. The petition, court orders the patient into treatment. This policy and procedure is known as involuntary commitment.
According to Alabama Code 22-52-10.4, a person that has an existing mental health diagnoisis and/or symptoms of mental instability that puts them in immediate danger to themselves or others can be involuntarily committed; due to them being unable to make appropriate decisions regarding their psychiatric care. Criteria of being a danger to self or others can be indicated by the client being suicidal and or homicidal, and if the client exhibits daredevil behaviors which also classifies as harm to self. If the client does not receive treatment, they will continue to decompensate which prevents them from living on their own. The Alabama Code also states that during the process of involuntary commitment, if the probate judge is made …show more content…

Those who struggle with chronic mental illness sometimes, exhibit limited insight and judgment regarding their treatment (Menninger,2001). This potentially becomes detrimental because they can be a danger to themselves and/or others, and cannot care for themselves independently. In an involuntary commitment policy, the typical stakeholders consist of psychiatric patients, psychiatrist, medical doctors ,law enforcement, and legislators. During the policy formulation process, each of the stakeholders is able to provide different viewpoints given their field of

Show More
Related

  • Mental Health Disparities Research Paper

    342 Words  | 2 Pages

    Like all form of disparities, mental health disparities is a serious challenge for minorities’ communities across America. Individuals with mental health illness how do not receive adequate health care due to variations can be affected in many ways. When their mental illness progress without any diagnosis they can easily be perceived as a threat to society. In cases where crimes are committed, and they cannot prove they are mentally challenged they can be charge and send to prison without being diagnosed which could affect their condition due to the lack of treatment. Without eradicating or implementing policies to deal with mental health disparities the probability of legally or morally assuming that people with mental health challenges are

    Read More

  • Greystone Parks Psychiatric Hospital Case Study

    525 Words  | 3 Pages

    In addition to, some Consumers are not aware of their illness. Never-the-less, in the State of New Jersey people who are deemed as a danger to themselves or others due to a mental illness is involuntarily committed to this facility by a judge who has written the orders. At “Greystone Parks Psychiatric Hospital” there are certain protocols that must be followed before people are admitted into this facility. The protocol is as follows, patients stay in either the A1/B1 units.

    Read More

  • Review Of Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

    556 Words  | 3 Pages

    Even after release, the counterproductive, deeply internalized patterns learned in prison are still present (Haney, 2002). In addition, the rate of incarceration of mentally ill individuals is alarming. Suspects will mental and developmental disorders are often unfairly sent to prison without regard to their conditions, leaving them helpless. Mentally ill inmates have an even more difficult time adjusting to life in prison, leaving them at an even higher risk for psychological

    Read More

  • Criminal Justice System: Chapter Summary And Analysis

    810 Words  | 4 Pages

    Introduction and Summary: Chapter 11 focuses on the individuals with mental illness and the criminal justice system. Every year there are hundreds of thousands of individuals with mental illness who are arrested. The past decade a lot of the state hospital and mental health facilities have been shut down for lack of funding. Many of the seriously mentally ill are roaming the streets. The serious mental illness regarding this chapter would include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and severe depression.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of The Baker Act

    1527 Words  | 7 Pages

    The Baker Act The Florida Mental Health Act, also known as ‘Baker Act’ was enacted in 1971. The Baker act oversees mental health services including voluntary and involuntary admissions (Florida Supreme Court, 2018 ). The purpose of this legislature is “to protect the rights and liberty interests of citizens with mental illnesses and ensure public safety” (Florida Supreme Court, n.d). According to Mr. Baker, the founder of the act, the original intent was to encourage voluntary commitments, distinguish differences between hospitalization and legal incompetency, and community health care among individuals with mental illnesses (Florida Supreme Court, n.d). The involuntary admissions criterion for the Baker acts allows any inpatient treatment facility to hold someone in custody up to 72 hours for

    Read More

  • Assisted Outpatient Care Pros And Cons

    299 Words  | 2 Pages

    Like many mentally ill Kentuckians, Morton was neither dangerous enough to be kept in a hospital for long nor healthy enough to care for himself in the community. If successful, House Bill 94 would "keep people out of the revolving door of the hospital," Sheila Schuster of the Kentucky Mental Health Coalition told the committee. Most states have adopted some version of "assisted outpatient treatment" since the 1980s, when families of the mentally ill began to lobby for it. Police or family members can have the mentally ill involuntarily committed to a hospital for treatment once they deteriorate to the point that they pose a threat to themselves or others. First, at a hearing, a judge would decide if the individual met various criteria, including having a severe mental illness, symptoms of anosognosia, a likelihood that he would be a danger to others and a determination that outpatient treatment was the least restrictive alternative available.

    Read More

  • Mental Health Court Research Paper

    459 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1999, a mental health court was established to therapeutically manage mentally ill people accused of a crime (King County TV, 2010). Unlike a conventional court system, a behavioral health court treats a mentally ill individual with more respect and understanding. According to King County TV (2010), mentally ill clients can propose to be placed in a mental health court system because it will allow them to have a chance to recover. However, when the client is not compliant with the plan of care given to them, he or she could be placed in jail if there is a possibility the

    Read More

  • Mass Incarceration In Prison

    1491 Words  | 6 Pages

    Common mental health diagnoses that are commonly seen among American prison inmates are bipolar disorder(depression and mood disorders) and schizophrenia which is a group of disorders characterized by recurrent episodes of psychotic behaviors, which may include abnormalities of thought process, delusions, auditory hallucinations and judgement. With lifelong medication therapy, many mentally ill patients are able to function well in society and carry out Activities of Daily Living(ADLs), though a small number of these patients do not, especially during psychotic episodes, which typically occur during periods of noncompliance with medications(Mosby). Recently, advocates have also classified substance abuse as a mental illness. Six states have repealed public drunkenness from statue and now consider alcoholism a disease rather than a crime(Person, p

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Documentary The New Asylums

    602 Words  | 3 Pages

    Their are around 500,000 mentally ill people that are put away in prisons and jails. In the documentary “The New Asylums”,Ohio's state prison system reveals the issues that are ongoing with mentally ill inmates. The major problem we have today is that no one is taking care of the people of these people. Most mentally ill people live by themselves with no family or friends to take care of them and they are off their medications. The mentally ill come in to prison on non violent offenses such as disturbing the peace, trespassing, etc. After leaving mental hospitals they usually end up on the streets and become homeless.

    Read More

  • Essay On Mass Incarceration

    712 Words  | 3 Pages

    The amount of mass incarceration in the United States as reached an all time high over the years. Mass Incarceration is the incarceration of a person or race based off of them being different and can be identified as a trend among law enforcements. These tensions have reached a certain extent and has received the attention of American citizens and the nation’s government. The laws of the United States seems fair, however with the enforcement of these laws, specific groups are targeted and abused by them daily.

    Read More

  • Mental Illness In Correctional Facilities

    475 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are so many mentally ill people in correctional facilities because most families do not know how to help their loves ones who suffer from a mental illness, so the call the police for help. Majority of the police officers do not know what to do or how to handle people with a mental illness disease. Police officers who are not trained to deal with the mentally ill often do not recognize that person is ill. Some police officers do not recognize if the individual should or not go to jail or a treatment center or medical facility. The impact of law enforcement and the judicial system dealing with people with a mental illness is to assist the inmates with the help they need.

    Read More

  • Review Of Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

    831 Words  | 4 Pages

    Research has proven that solitary confinement is not healthy for anyone who is suffering from mental illness. There needs to be a better solution or way to help these

    Read More

  • Community Mental Health Act Of 1963 Essay

    1349 Words  | 6 Pages

    Introduction Prior to the mid-1960 virtually all mental health treatment was provided on an inpatient basis in hospitals and institutions. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 was established with its primary focus on deinstitutionalizing mentally ill patients, and shutting down asylums in favor of community mental health centers. It was a major policy shift in mental health treatment that allowed patients to go home and live independently while receiving treatment, (Pollack & Feldman, 2003). As a result of the Act, there was a shift of mentally ill persons in custodial care in state institutions to an increase of the mentally ill receiving prosecutions in criminal courts.

    Read More

  • Essay On Mass Incarceration

    643 Words  | 3 Pages

    Over the decades, mass incarceration has become an important topic that people want to discuss due to the increasing number of mass incarceration. However, most of the people who are incarceration are people of color. This eventually leads to scholars concluding that there is a relationship between mass incarceration and the legacy of slavery. The reason is that people of color are the individuals who are overrepresented in prison compared to whites. If you think about it, slavery is over and African Americans are no longer mistreated; however, that is not the case as African Americans continue to face oppression from the government and police force.

    Read More

  • Mental Illness And Criminology Essay

    4100 Words  | 17 Pages

    Mental illness and criminology: a review of related literature Aja Ferguson Chaminade University CJ 605 Dr. Allen 3/18/2017 I. INTRODUCTION Mental illness and criminology are two fields that continue to generate interest among researchers. One of the reasons that explain the consistent interest of scholars is the presence of a vast, unexplored territory where there is a dearth in available and updated information related to mental illness and criminology. Even though the study of the mentally ill and the criminal are two different spheres, it is not uncommon that individuals became criminals because they are mentally ill, just like it is not new to discover criminals in prison to develop

    Read More

More about Essay On Involuntary Commitment

Open Document