Posted by yxibow on September 27, 2006, at 0:24:33
In reply to Suicide Attempts, posted by Triolian on September 26, 2006, at 22:47:50
> Take my advice - if you're considering suicide, don't ever ask for help.
> Don't ask your doctor, don't ask a clergyman, don't ever go to a hospital
> emergency room, and for God's sake, NEVER call one of those goddamned
> suicide "help" lines. There are new laws in nearly every state in the US
> which will allow you to be imprisoned, yes imprisoned, in a mental hospital,
> for anywhere from 72 hours to 72 years. It's up to them. They're doing it
> "for your own good", to keep you from "harming yourself". In my case they
> threw me into an isolation room in a hospital emergency room, sprayed me in
> the face with pepper spray, locked me in the room for hours, and then had me
> taken off to a locked psychiatric facility. I remember sitting in the
> isolation room with pepper spray on my face, wishing I had just done myself
> in instead of calling a "help" line. Next time that's exactly what I'll do !
>
>
Assuming you're in the United States, and you were not under a PCP induced rage or anything of the above, you have the right to sue the hospital. That is totally improper practice -- the pepper spray and isolation room, provided you simply walked into the hospital and said I feel suicidal. If there's something left out of this case, I can't comment.The 72 hour hold is a standard in most all states -- that is for your own protection. But that is a regular, unrestrained hold in a locked part of a psychiatric institution. Once the 72 hours are over, you are either turned loose or better yet referred to additional counseling in the unlocked section of a ward.
So pepper spray, tasers, leather restraints, and other medieval devices are not part of a 72 hour suicide hold. Ever. The hospital would lose its JCHAO evaluation. Unless they were specifically using it on a patient in a unrelenting PCP psychotic rage armed with a machete.
-- tidingsJay
poster:yxibow
thread:689496
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060919/msgs/689510.html