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BAR[_2_]

In article ,
says...

On Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:47:34 -0500, wrote:

I keep hearing about these closed mental hospitals but most were
actually closed because civil rights and privacy advocates took away
all of the patients. It is very hard to keep someone in a mental
hospital after 72 hours if they want to go.

There is a guy around the corner from me who has been "Baker acted" at
least 30 times in the last 10 years (hauled away by the cops and put
in for observation). Sometimes he goes into rehab for a few weeks on
our dime, he calls it the spa, but most of the time he is home after
a few days.

Even court ordered (non-criminal) commitments can easily be vacated if
the patient files a "show cause" motion and there are lots of "rights"
groups who will file the motion for you.

There are at least three large mental health facilities with forensic
wards in your state of Florida. My wife did her internship at one of
them, a 650-bed facility. At the time she worked there, there were
several hundred persons resident who had been committed for substantial
or even indeterminate terms as a result of serious, violent criminal
activities in which they had engaged.

The assumption is that your wife met you at one of these mental
hospitals or during a group therapy session where you were a mandatory
attendee.

Your "guy around the corner" sounds like someone who is a drug addict
and who gets out of control but is not judged a threat to others. A
"Baker Act" commitment is for 72 hours, after which a judge determines
if cause can be demonstrated for a longer commitment. If not, as is
usually the case, the individual is released.

Thirty times in 10 years is a pattern. The guy is not right in the head.

Most communities these days simply don't have out-patient treatment
available for the indigent, so they end up hospitalized.

Maybe if you paid your taxes the government could afford to run in-
patient facilities.