Help How Do you Handle "Wellness Checks"?

[Bacchikoi]

So, I live in the USA so any legal discussion will revolve around that.

After a lifetime of depression and suicidal thoughts, my upcoming divorce has finally pushed me over the edge. I've decided to CTB soon, like April at the latest. I don't really want to go through all of this alone, I would like to open up to some of the VERY FEW people I can, but I'm concerned about wellness checks.

Whenever I opened up to my parents in the past about how I felt they IMMEDIATELY called the cops on me (multiple times). I ended up locked in mental health facilities 2 times for a combined 7'ish weeks. Absolute. Hell. How much authority does a wellness check hold? Legally, what can I decline and say no to? I've had a wellness check called on me where the sheriff contacted my landlord to let them into my apartment while I was sleeping, start "securing" the apartment swat style with guns out yelling "If you are in here make your presence known". They even grabbed my phone and started going through texts. I feel like this is WAYYYY overstepping their boundaries and I don't understand how that can even be legal. How much power do I have in these situations to say "no, please leave me alone" and refuse to cooperate?

 

[nerve]

With few exceptions, in the US, we have a constitutional right to not speak to law enforcement and they have the right to lie, threaten, or intimidate people into talking to them.

Good article:

Know Your Rights | What To Do When Encountering Questions from Law Enforcement | ACLU

Know your rights when encountering questions from law enforcement.

www.aclu.org

I was watching a compilation of police interrogations and there was one anonymous guy who was just identified as "crack user" and he was easily the smartest one of the bunch because he refused to answer any questions instead of trying to come up with an elaborate excuse or denial. They let him go.

If you find a decent therapist, they won't call the police on you for just expressing suicidal thoughts. You have to intend on following through with them. There are lots of ways to feel out how a therapist reacts to a client being suicidal without coming out and telling them you have a method and a timeline, since they see those as two very big factors in assessing how at risk someone is. Most ethical therapists view wellness checks as a last resort since they know it's an invasion of privacy and damages trust.

I'm so sorry the system let you down and fell back on violent coercion instead of trying to actually help. It's unfair and a deeply flawed way of handling suicide and we're the ones who suffer because of how careless they are. Please know it's not your fault and just a symptom of how unfair and cruel the world can be.

 

[Bacchikoi]

Yea, that'll teach us for trying to reach out and get help. How dare we!

It's unfair and a deeply flawed way of handling suicide and we're the ones who suffer because of how careless they are.

 

[EmbraceOfTheVoid]

The only thing I'm aware of is that the Constitution in the US is little more than a crumpled up piece of paper when it comes to the "mental care" acts. It isn't legal or humane in any sense of the word but it's still allowed because you are deemed mentally incompetent which frankly has no merit either. It's nothing more than circular logic; simply being suicidal makes you mentally unfit in the laws eyes. I'm sorry to say but neither the police, therapists, or the people in government are held accountable for depriving people of their rights as human beings; your rights are irrelevant and a inconvenience to them.

It is mainly by resisting authority that the individual defines himself. This is why authorities--whether parental, priestly, political, or psychiatric--must be careful how and where they assert themselves; for while it is true that the more they assert themselves the more they govern, it is also true that the more they assert themselves the more opportunities they offer for being successfully denied." ―Thomas Stephen Szasz, Ceremonial Chemistry: The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts and Pushers

"The judge punishes lawbreakers as a burning house injures its occupants. A person may be burned to death while robbing a home or saving a friend. Similarly, from a moral point of view, the judge's work is good or evil, depending on whether the laws he enforces are good or evil." ―Thomas Stephen Szasz, Law, Liberty and Psychiatry

 

[Bacchikoi]

because you are deemed mentally incompetent

This hits home soooo hard. Literally stripped of all of my possessions and locked up like a prisoner surrounded by people who claw at their eyes or scream all night or people who "talk to aliens" (actual crazy people). All because I offhandedly mentioned I think about suicide. If I wasn't crazy before I definitely am now.

 

[EmbraceOfTheVoid]

This hits home soooo hard. Literally stripped of all of my possessions and locked up like a prisoner surrounded by people who claw at their eyes or scream all night or people who "talk to aliens" (actual crazy people). All because I offhandedly mentioned I think about suicide. If I wasn't crazy before I definitely am now.

From a user on here:

I'm so sick of this narrative from mainstream media and society. Suicide is a product of mental illness...which can all be resolved if you get help. Call this support line. Where you'll hear the same mindless platitudes and if you do admit you're thinking of killing yourself, get thrown in hospital in an involuntary mental health hold. Stripped of your dignity, your belongings searched, your appearance and belongings analysed, medicated, watched, having to pretend you're okay to be let out.

Tell me how this is supposed to help? And when you are let out, you're given a prescription and a number to call.

Whatever happened in your life to make you want to end it...abuse, trauma, poverty, homelessness, homophobia, racism, disability, parental expectations, broken relationships....whatever, none of that matters. If you just talk it out, access the "support", you'll be fine. No one ever talks about addressing the issues that put you there in the first place.

No one who wasn't already thinking about suicide - as an issue at least, if not an option for them personally - seeks out sites like this. And it's the only place where people like us can talk openly. (I'm new here but was on ASH back in the early 00s, I just wish I'd paid more attention to methods).

It's natural for those who've lost a loved one to look for answers and lash out at those they believe are to blame. It's lazy and irresponsible for the media to join in. Look at a society with appalling mental health support, few resources for the disadvantaged, and a societal discourse that forces open conversation about suicide into trite notions of support and people who can't even be honest for fear they'll wind up in a mental health unit, not allowed to leave. -Suicidal stranger from the internet

 

[MindFrog]

Wait, you can call the police on someone for suicide ideation? That's messed up. Shouldn't that be like a moral right to think freely. It's also a huge breach of trust on you parents. Hope you're ok, op.

 

[Meretlein]

Under normal circumstances, treating someone the way you were treated would be considered a violation of your rights.

Unfortunately for us, deeming someone to be mentally ill and a danger to themselves is a get of jail free card for treating us as non persons and locking us up based on hearsay and what might happen in the future.

 

[Bacchikoi]

Wait, you can call the police on someone for suicide ideation? That's messed up. Shouldn't that be like a moral right to think freely. It's also a huge breach of trust on you parents. Hope you're ok, op.

Unfortunately, yes. If you believe someone is in danger you can call the police and they will perform a "wellness check". Anyone can do this and its sooooo easy to abuse the system. Depending on the police they can just knock on your door, see that you're alive and go away. They can also, as I stated earlier up, go wayyyyyyyyy beyond that. Entering your house without permission, going through your belongings... stuff like that. If they don't like what they see, they will detain you as they contact a judge who will enact an "emergency detention order" which allows them to basically arrest you until the facility hosting you deems you not a danger to yourself or others. These EDO's are almost always a minimum of 4 days of essentially being a prisoner. I wasn't even feeling suicidal at the time but one facility decided to keep me for 2 whole weeks. I wanted none of it. They even had the nerve of giving me a $9,000 bill as I left.