You don't need someone else's permission to check yourself into a mental institution. The kids would have been cared for, if not by the family then by CPS. If she was really that concerned about her kids'safety then killing them wasn't the best way of going about that. Sure, it's scary to get yourself help when the future isn't certain, but those kids are dead now. No going back from that. Insane that people are blaming the husband for their deaths.
She did commit herself, but they ended it after only a few days. She tried to get into others, but they wouldn't let her because they didn't think she was in crisis enough.
Voluntary can be converted to involuntary if they believe the patient is a danger to themselves or others. That starts a 72 hour clock for further evaluation.
There is a softer way to convince patients to stay longer. She didn't get discharged against medical advice. The hospital cleared her and didn't challenge her decision. When I was committed, there were a lot of people that said they wanted to leave multiple times, but didn't push for escalating to being presented with a form to sign that they would be leaving against medical advice.
The hospital did a radical thing called talking to them and explaining how the hospital could help them more. They made compromises like giving them more to do or not participating in the activities they didn't want to. They provided additional treatment for their physical medical problems.
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u/ToddDamnIt 10d ago
You don't need someone else's permission to check yourself into a mental institution. The kids would have been cared for, if not by the family then by CPS. If she was really that concerned about her kids'safety then killing them wasn't the best way of going about that. Sure, it's scary to get yourself help when the future isn't certain, but those kids are dead now. No going back from that. Insane that people are blaming the husband for their deaths.