This is california law and I believe the code is 51-50 but this is over 20 years ago so I’m a little fuzzy. I think looking back they were just liability papers the university was having me sign, I remember having to acknowledge things (that I didnt have time to read) that I wouldnt be able to purchase a firearm for 7 years and a whole bunch of other legal gobbledegook about being detained and what my rights were. The whole time a cop is standing above me making me sign it though and no one was answering my questions. I was extraordinarily confused for most of it until the cuffs went on and I had kind of a vague understanding I had said something wrong. At no point did anyone tell me what I did other than to tell me stuff like “you’re very ill and are being looked after for your own safety, care will be provided to you and you will be ok” kind of stuff. I cannot stress enough that this assessment was based on less than a 10 minute conversation with me. They even had a followup with me I was forced to go to, because I had missed the finals (because i was gone for like 3 days) and therefore actually failed. So they then convinced me to do a medical withdrawal to save my grade which very ironically led me to actually dropping out because I lost all my scholarships and grants. I would have probably been fine had I never sought help, and I suspect although my experience was extreme and probably malfeasant, that this treatment of people undergoing difficult mental things is probably very commonplace within the system.
This happened to a friend of mine in the last year. He went to the ER for something and joked about feeling suicidal. Meanwhile people I know who are actually suicidal are impossible to get admitted. Sorry that happened to you. I really wish there was a better feedback mechanism in American healthcare
Thanks, ironically this is one of those policies that has misaligned incentives everywhere. The doctor does not have any incentive other than to "play extra safe" and punt anyone they think is having a crisis into other hands - they're usually very busy, especially in the ER, which is typically full of mentally ill people. This has the opposite effect of actually helping people though - what happens to your friend if he actually is feeling suicidal in the future? 0 chance he seeks help, it's way too risky to even state outloud. And when people have no outlet for this kind of problem or thoughts, bad things happen.
Looking back with a more historical lens I think at the time this happened for me was shortly after columbine and everyone was freaked out about mentally ill people shooting up a place because that had at that time been a shocking incident.
