Can a patient going into a crisis center on a voluntary basis be overridden to an involuntary patient?

Question

My husband suffers from bipolar, when I married him he was not taking any medications or seeing his doctor and was functioning well for 4 years. He is currently in an episode (He hasn't slept in weeks) . He volunteered to go into our local hospital emergency care. When we got there they immediately gave him a shot that had put him to sleep within 20 seconds. He was then transferred to a crisis triage center for 72 hours (voluntarily). Once there, no visitors, oral meds is not going over well. Now they are saying that he will be admitted to a mental institution on an involuntary basis. I am not able to get any information on him, since he refuses to sign any papers. Question..why are they not administering sleep by injection like the ER? He is obviously not in his right state of mind. Can someone help?

Answer 1

the injection he got in the ER was to keep him and those around him safe from harm. It is not done in a controlled environment. If he is being involuntarily committed, it can only be because he has become violent and requires protection for himself and those around him. Once he is stabalized and taking his meds, you will be allowed to see him. Be patient.

Answer 2

This sounds incredibly painful to you to witness this mental illness in full tilt after enjoying some years of stability it must seem totally a shock Have you any knowledge of this disease? Try NAMI.org for info and support groups. when hopefully he is stabilized and can do it, try to get him to consider filling out a mental health advanced directive This can include you as a person that can be informed of his status/condition. It can also be a permission to admit himself if he is unable to think clearly due to the disease and the complications of it(IE no sleep makes a person psychotic) Until you get to that point you might have to be patient, while continually but politely asking for information and asking when you can visit there are times when t is not possible to have a meaning ful visit.
BTW while I know nothing of your local particular facility, I absolutely do know mental health hospitals are in great nee ed and do a great service to mentally unstable persons until they can handle going to outpatient visits and be able to take care of themselves Most "regular" hospitals have shut down all but a very few tiny psych units and are only voluntary ,and only for a day or two at that. People need weeks months or a year or so to get some type of functioning or while waiting for an appropriate placement out of the hospital when directly home cannot work. We must encourage these places to stay available When Reagan placed many mentally ill on the streets it started a bad trend. Work with the doctors and try not to undermine their efforts they have to work within the privacy rules and cannot divulge everything about p[patients w/o the patient giving permission
Best of luck

Answer 3

The same thing happened with my Uncle. However, after he admitted himself, they kept him for around 48hours with the same routine that your husband went through and then let him release himself. Bi polar disease is very unpredictable, and if they upset your husband bad enough and the fact he was already in that state of mind they may be trying to commit him for being crazy. Well the truth is he is not crazy, simply acting crazy. The chemical imbalance is what has got him in this state, and I am sure he is experiencing lots of peranoia. I am not as familiar with the chemical side as I am the effects. There are stages they go through including fear from feeling the unstable state of mind coming on, anger for not being able to stop it, self doubt from feeling different from others, analytical research into why it happened (this comes on like an epiphany) and finally they go back to rest. This all can happen in a short or long period of time. The dangers of this come mainly from the anger and the paranoia. In their minds, which at that point are working probably twice as fast as someone without bi polar, think so fast that they cannot differentiate between what is real and what is not. I would do what ever I could to get him back out of that hospital which never seem to really to do anything, and get him to a good therapist who deals with bi polars on a regular basis. There are medicines out there that can help, NOT PROZAC. All that does is help with the depression, which works if nothing else is available, but does nothing for the actual chemical imbalance. Now for what you need to do for yourself, is rest up while he is not there. It is going to take alot of energy from you so you will need to be mentally prepared to guide him through this. You have to be the only person he can trust so if he starts losing it again he knows that you are an ally and not an enemy. Good luck with everything. Things will get better, and as bad as this part of the disease is, the flip side is when a bi polar works on a project or is focused on something they achieve amazing results! J

Answer 4

Well you need to call you local Department of Mental Health, they will have you fill out some papers and ask you some questions to determine what case worker fits him best. If he refuses to sign any papers then yes he is involuntary. You do need to get on top of it because they will treat him bad. Good Luck Call right away.

Answer 5

Hey. The problem here is that he is refusing to sign any papers. Since he is a danger to himself and not in his right mind, they have the right to commit him.

By offering him the option of "signing the papers" they were offering him the opportunity to sign himself in voluntarility.
But he refused and now they can commit him.

Don't worry. Once he is stabilized, he will be allowed visitors and be out shortly.