Our mental health doom loop
Explain It to Me
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Involuntary Commitment Laws Across the Country
There are involuntary commitment laws in all 50 states that allow officials to take individuals and forcibly bring them to a psychiatric hospital. There are also involuntary outpatient commitment laws in 47 of the 50 states where someone can be forced to attend outpatient treatment. If they don't, then they are involuntarily committed to an inpatient ward. So this is a super common law it's in place everywhere. And we're seeing it being used more often. A study in 2020 from UCLA found that the use of involuntary psychiatric holds was growing faster than the population by a rate of three to one.
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