2pc

[rpkall]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Does anyone else out there absolutely hate committing patients? Not people who you feel would actually benefit from hospitalization (or people who are legitimately endangering others), but the ones who swear up and down they're not suicidal, are angry, don't want help, have personality and/or substance abuse problems, etc?

Like, I mean, Dr. Szasz-level hatred, as in philosophical as well as turn-your-stomach kind of hate?

I have had one too many bad experiences with this and I thought I would ask if it ever turns anyone else's stomach, or if I'm alone and should just pick something else to do with my life. 👍

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Does anyone else out there absolutely hate committing patients? Not people who you feel would actually benefit from hospitalization (or people who are legitimately endangering others), but the ones who swear up and down they're not suicidal, are angry, don't want help, have personality and/or substance abuse problems, etc?

Like, I mean, Dr. Szasz-level hatred, as in philosophical as well as turn-your-stomach kind of hate?

I have had one too many bad experiences with this and I thought I would ask if it ever turns anyone else's stomach, or if I'm alone and should just pick something else to do with my life. 👍

I'd always rather elicit voluntary cooperation, but there are so many situations where the patient has "been there, done that" repeatedly, agreed to treatment, gone back home, failed appointments, gone off their meds, gone back to using...that we come to view the commitment process as providing some additional "teeth" of accountability and enforcement. Heavy-handed? Paternalistic? I suppose some would see it as such. But it's hardly our "first line" choice.