In the usa you only need a high school degree...

Scott thanks for the post. The Baker Act is not a treatment statute, it is only intended when emergency stabilization is necessary. What typically happens is that an individual with mental illness gets worse with time, just like any other disease. We encourage families to get their loved some help at the first sign of an issue, either voluntarily or involuntarily (typically through the use of a guardianship). When no help is forthcoming because the family fails to take action (and the reasons for that are many), eventually things get so bad that the State has to step in, and that's where the Baker Act comes in. If someone gets Baker Acted, and the State successfully petitions the court for an order for extended detention (placement), things tend to go from bad to worse.

@@markastor6740 I see, now i Have a better understanding of all this. A recent example was the guy in NYC who used to make a living on the street in midtown as a Michael Jackson impersonator, performer, and later had serious mental illness issues, and ended up apparently threatening people on the subway verbally, and was chokeholded and restrained by the former Marine guy, and then later died. His family were allegedly aware of his illness, but seemingly failed to actually go get him help. Once these people end up on the street or without family connections, things can get bad very fast.

@@thiscorrosion900 Are you familiar with the Community Mental Health Act (1963)? My understanding is that while the cause, allegedly noble, was to eliminate State Mental Hospitals in lieu of Community-Based Mental Health facilities, which would be helpful in integrating a person in various stages of healing/worsening, within that community. The reality was that many simply disappeared in the transition, never successfully engaging with the community mental health centers, and thus becoming "lost." The idea of "getting them help", is obvious, yet the reality is that a large portion of what is being observed in the myriad of names now included in the most recent edition of the D.S.M., is actually Trauma. Now this word has become a meme, but actually has a useful meaning in NeuroPsychyology- an event which causes an overload one's nervous system. Childhood Trauma (Developmental Trauma/C-PTSD) (Look into ACE's) is an epidemic. It's lack of resolution manifests as all manner of the somewhat acknowledged epidemics: Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, Cluster-B Personality Disorders (which the differentiation of, is certainly "unscientific", as were the addition of some 200 disorders in the DSM 3), but it is not only not a quick-fix, many of the psychiatric medications actually interfere with what could/should be a releasing of trauma. Feeling is the key to resolving Trauma, and medications cut them off due to the problematic behaviors which often occur. As Mark said above, "extended placement, things tend to go from bad to worse. This is because services are misguided due to their need to be quick and resolve the "presenting symptoms", rather than to develop the long-term relationships required "to help" a person who is suffering so. The ability to be with a person who is suffering is reserved, in reality, to those who themselves are not averse to experiencing their own suffering. The number of persons in need far exceeds the number of truly qualified guides, and the process is long and non-linear. If we're not prepared to make such investment, and we're not, the epidemic will be revealed, such as Covid lockdowns revealed what happens if family's are left to themselves. The Baker Act, as you said, becomes necessary when failure to get help has been the case for quite some time, in most cases. Expecting a family in which such adaptations had been created, out of a infant/young child's need to survive as intact as possible, to be helpful in identifying the "problem(s)", and/or be part of the solution, is, unfortunately, likely a let down. Feel free to inquire about any related issues for your writings, as I have been long inquiring, formally and informally, into these areas.

In fact, I withdrew her from there,I knew what was going to happen had I allowed it and everything this man is saying is what would have happened. Now she's in private school and doing great.

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