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Any police officers? -question regarding missing person
The story:
A woman I went to HS with is "missing". She is around 25 years old and has 2 small children. She is a heroin addict. I grew up in small town Wisconsin and it's disguesting how heroin has invaded that area, but that's a whole other story.
Her family created a FB page to get the word out that she was gone and hadn't been seen. Her family hasn't been in contact with her for 5 days now.
Per the FB page, on Monday (missing for 2 days) someone contacted the family and said that she was in a rehab/shelter and they believed them. They later found out that it was false information and she had never been to this facility. The facility does exist, but she was never there. The call was a restricted number
Tonight somebody contacted the family (via the FB page) and said that she had spoken to people that had seen her, she is alive and breathing but not well (heavily on drugs).
My question: Can you FORCE an adult to go to rehab? Get help? Can they be legally required? She has abandoned her two children with her family and it is just such a sad situation. I'm just wondering what they can do to try and help her. I understand that she is an adult and makes her own decisions, but she *needs* help. Addiction is such a horrible disease and my heart just aches for her boys.
If you made it this far, here... 
you deserve this! :-) TIA!
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Re: Any police officers? -question regarding missing person
You would either have to get her declared legally incompentent... where depending on the state 2 or more doctors declare her unable to care for herself.
Or she would have to be arrested, charged and as part of a plea deal be granted rehab instead of jail time. This is risky because a judge could reject the deal, you would have to get a ada willing to agree to this charge and should would have to be caught doing something illegal.
oh i am not a cop but had a family friend that was crazy and this is what had to be done to force him to get help.
A doctor can declare a drug addict legally incompentent? I know that they can for someone with other mental illnesses, but I wasn't sure if you could for addiction.
That's what I came to understand. The reason that came up is that we thought the person was on drugs and that's how it came up. I may be wrong since I might not have realized that the drug part was already ruled out when this part was happening. Anyway... good luck.
I'm a social worker at a mental health clinic...and in theory, YES, you can have a drug addicted committed to hospitalization...here's how it works:
You would have to FIND the individual first (obviously), and once you know/are aware of their whereabouts, you contact the police and let them know that this person is a danger to themselves and possibly to others due to their drug use. Heavy use of heroin can lead to death, and this person's actions (leaving home, not having stable housing, using heroin quite heavily, I assume she's not eating, etc) place her in danger/at risk for death. (Does the person have a history of violence while intoxicated? Or of driving a vehicle while high? If so, then tell the police she's endangering others as well).
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE POLICE TAKE HER TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM AND THAT THE FAMILY ASK TO "PETITION THIS PERSON FOR INVOLUNTARY PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALIZATION". IT IS ALSO IMPORTANT THAT THEY USE THE WORDS "DANGER TO SELF AND OTHERS" (I put this in all caps, because this is the part that is going to be important to remember).
Once they've gotten her to the hospital and petitioned her for involuntary hospitalization, a psychiatrist must evaluate her. He will decide if she is in fact a danger to herself/others. Generally, they will automatically keep someone for what is called a 23 hour hold (meaning, they have 23 hours to keep that person locked on the psych ward until she is evaluated by a doc). A lot of times docs will go ahead an admit someone, just to be on the safe side (and also, they make money if they admit people), this will buy you 72 hours or more (depending on what the doc admits her for). At this point IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO CONTACT THE SOCIAL WORKER WHO IS ASSIGNED TO THE PSYCH WARD. THE FAMILY SHOULD TELL THIS SOCIAL WORKER EXACTLY WHAT IS GOING ON AND EXPLAIN THE DESIRE TO HAVE THIS PERSON IN SUBSTANCE ABUSE REHAB. The social worker will be able to assist them in proceeding from there.
My dad was a bad alcoholic and we had to do this to get him into rehab. He had quit drinking and his blood pressure spiked to dangerous levels. When we took him to the ER they told us that since he was in such bad shape physically and mentally (threatening suicide) that we could have him sent to the psychiatric hospital. They sent him to detox for 4 days then took him to the center.
my read shelf:
My bff is serving out her probation time and is required to do outpatient rehab or NA meetings or something. Of course, slugging the police officer trying to arrest her for public drunkeness didn't really do wonders for her, since she was already in outpatient rehab for heroin.
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