This is Emergency Services as its Defined on a Community Services Boards' Web Site

Emergency Services/Crisis Counseling is a State mandated program. This unit provides short-term crisis counseling and referrals to individuals on an emergency basis. Emergency and crisis response services include: telephone interventions; face-to-face assessments and evaluation (including pre-admission screening); psychiatric consultation and other clinical consultation about mental health, substance abuse, and special populations which include children, adolescents, geriatric, people with mental retardation, and individuals involved in the forensic system. Emergency Services/Crisis Counseling is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Everything on this website has been thoroughly examined, reviewed, evaluated, and ultimately approved by The Citizens’ Committee for the Advancement of Rational Thought and Actions in Virginia's Mental Health System….


Things Sure Aren't What They Used to be..Conditions Sure Have Changed

coming soon........

Thursday, July 19, 2007

OK, This is the One. Yep, Joseph Heller is Turning Over in his Grave.....

OK. Listen carefully. A mentally ill person is seen on the street at the request of the police department. OK. Just for the sake of this illustration we will assume that this person is seriously mentally ill and needs immediate hospitalization. Hmmm. That sounds simple enough. OK..... still with me. OK. Call hospital A, B, C and there are no beds. Call hospital D. Yes, they have a jillion beds. However, they request medical clearance. Hey, nothing wrong with that. They want the person to go to the emergency room, have lab tests and such to make sure they have no serious illnesses that would make them not a candidate for a stand alone hospital.
Hmmmm.
OK. Listen carefully. It is possible to get a Temporary Detention Order...that has at the bottom a check that says, a direct quote from the order, "For medical evaluation or treatment as may be required by a physician at the temporary detention facility."
OK. That seems to make everything, OK. Well, it doesn't as the hospital says, Hey, get them medically cleared and we'll see whether or not we'll admit them. Hmmm.-
Hmmmm. Let's see. If the hospital says, Yes, we'll accept with medical clearance the mentally ill person can be taken to an emergency room to have whatever tests are required. If the person is medically compromised so to speak, they will be admitted medically and that's that. They will not go to the psychiatric hospital.
However, if the hospital will not accept them subject to medical clearance...nothing can be done. If the mentally ill person states they won't go to the ER, the police have no legal way of taking them...and, ultimately, they will be released to the street. That's a pretty good system, hey...
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