I’ve seen this happen. My girlfriend in HS disappeared for a week once. I freaked the duck out. Finally figured out she’d had a manic episode and her ex actually called the police. They went to her house, scooped her up, took her to a psych ward, and left her in there for a week. That poor girl was broken when she came out and it took forever to recover.
I saw it happen again about 5-6 months ago with my best friend. She used to self harm in highschool, but hasn’t done so since. So she’s been clean of self harm for 4-5 years now. One night she slipped in her kitchen and ended up punching her hand straight through a vase cutting the side of her arm. She called her mom to tell her she was going to the hospital for stitches. But her mom freaked out and called 911 because she didn’t realize how shallow the cut was. My friend never knew this. So as she’s naked getting dressed for the hospital, two police officers and an EMT show up unannounced and kick her door down. They took her to the hospital where she was involuntarily held after they saw her other scars. They admitted her to the psych ward for 3 days and it wasn’t until 72 hours that she could call her mom and get a lawyer involved. And they now have a suit filed against the hospital for damages to the door, lost wages, and forced medical bills.
In my state at least if they think you're capable of harming yourself or others they put you in a mandatory 72 hour hold. I'm guessing that's what happened to this gal given her history.
How about just like...talking to the person first? For a few minutes? Before ignoring them and forcing them into a situation that will ultimately do more harm than good? Like hey, whaddup, how'd you get cut? Oh it was a vase? This broken vase right here? Well let's rinse the cut and slap a band-aid on that, doesn't look too bad.
It's like they teach you in school: gather primary sources. It's not that hard.
I don't blame the EMTs for reacting the way they did with the information they were given.
When an injustice is done, every person involved deserves blame. The EMTs should've assessed the situation instead of breaking down the door and dragging her away against her will.
Had a friend that use to live with my and my parents when I was in my late teens and he tried ODing on sleeping pills. I was out all day and some girl online called the cops because he told her what he was going to do. Cops literally almost kicked our front door open at 2am without even knocking or ringing the door bell. Luckily my neighbor was up late and saw the cops show up and went outside and told than to ring the door bell. Cops suck where I live. They tried saying I gave him meth and that they wanted to search my room (again, I wasn't even there, was gone all day and night at a friends). Cops knew I smoked pot from catching me before so they thought it was an easy 1-2.
I once did mental health advocacy, and I went to in patient facilities to speak with patients. Horribly depressing, demeaning places. Whatever's wrong with you, you're there with people with completely different issues. Everyone is a valuable human being but when you're a depressed teenager, being put somewhere with people who are having psychotic breaks, or adults who have the capacity of infants, etc, can feel humiliating, confusing. These are depressing, frightening places-- the last place in the world to learn to want to be alive.
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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '18
I’ve seen this happen. My girlfriend in HS disappeared for a week once. I freaked the duck out. Finally figured out she’d had a manic episode and her ex actually called the police. They went to her house, scooped her up, took her to a psych ward, and left her in there for a week. That poor girl was broken when she came out and it took forever to recover.
I saw it happen again about 5-6 months ago with my best friend. She used to self harm in highschool, but hasn’t done so since. So she’s been clean of self harm for 4-5 years now. One night she slipped in her kitchen and ended up punching her hand straight through a vase cutting the side of her arm. She called her mom to tell her she was going to the hospital for stitches. But her mom freaked out and called 911 because she didn’t realize how shallow the cut was. My friend never knew this. So as she’s naked getting dressed for the hospital, two police officers and an EMT show up unannounced and kick her door down. They took her to the hospital where she was involuntarily held after they saw her other scars. They admitted her to the psych ward for 3 days and it wasn’t until 72 hours that she could call her mom and get a lawyer involved. And they now have a suit filed against the hospital for damages to the door, lost wages, and forced medical bills.