The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang

Author:Esmé Weijun Wang [Wang, Esmé Weijun]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 978-1-55597-876-1
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Published: 2018-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

Torrey, a psychiatrist who helped found the Treatment Advocacy Center, is a vigorous proponent of involuntary treatment, including hospitalization. He has publicly criticized the recovery movement for giving false hope to the severely ill; in turn, recovery and survivor-based movements criticize Torrey for his emphasis on drugging them and locking them up.

There are solid reasons behind the existence of involuntary hospitalization laws—primarily, that there are circumstances in which persons with severe mental illness become unable to make good choices for themselves. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) states in its policy platform that “with adequate professional consultation, every person with a serious mental illness who has the capacity and competence to do so should be entitled to manage his or her own treatment,” but that “when an individual lacks capacity and competence because of his or her serious mental illness … the substitute judgment of others … may be justified in determining treatment and possible hospitalization.” Regarding involuntary commitment, NAMI makes a point of mentioning that people “with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder” may “at times, due to their illness, lack insight or good judgment about their need for medical treatment.” As a woman with schizoaffective disorder, the psychiatric disorder that combines the two, I consider myself called. Involuntary commitment may sometimes be warranted, but it has never felt useful to me.

Section 5150 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code states that “a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, [who] is a danger to others, or to himself or herself, or gravely disabled” is allowed to be taken “into custody for a period of up to 72 hours for assessment, evaluation, and crisis intervention, or placement for evaluation and treatment in a facility designated by the county for evaluation and treatment and approved by the State Department of Health Care Services.” Although all states have some form of this law, “5150” has slipped into the cultural vernacular as a catchall term for involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. A friend of mine, a veteran of the mental health care system, once confessed to me that his ATM card’s PIN code was 5150. We both laughed, uneasily.

According to section (g)(1) of Section 5150, a person taken under custody due to the law must be provided the following information, either orally or in writing:

My name is———.

I am a [peace officer/mental health professional] with [name of agency].

You are not under criminal arrest, but I am taking you for an examination by mental health professionals at [name of facility].

You will be told your rights by the mental health staff.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.