Family Help

[silver]

It just takes time and patience... hurts in the process... but doesnt heal overnight...

[uncle_el]

you should try to get what is called a layman's affidavit, sometimes refferred to as a "lay aff" for short.

the process consists of going to the local police precinct and asking for the form, filling it out, having a short court hearing, and then the police go and detain said person.

generally, the form is used for the mentally ill- you would write that the person's acting weird/strange/crazy/etc. and what they did (stole money, hit someone, left the stove on all night). it's a pretty short 1 page form.

as i understand it, as i've never been to a hearing, is that the judge looks at it, asks if it's true to your knowledge, and ok's it. once that's done, the police go and get the person, take him/her to a psychiatric facility (not sure what county you're in).

in any event, at that point, if she's not medically stable, she would be sent to a hospital. if she is medically stable, then she would be kept at least 24 hours for observations. at that point, perhaps an intervention could be made. it usually takes a number of attempts at intervention before the person gets it.

all in all, the entire process from filling out the form, to the police doing their thing is same day.

for anyone in dekalb county, the dekalb crisis center and dekalb addiction center may be of help to you or your family:

dekalb crisis center 404 892 4646 website

don't know the number for dekalb addiction center.

i spent 6 weeks on my psych rotation at dekalb crisis center, and we detoxed a lot of people- heroin/percocet/percadan, cocaine, methamphetamine/ice/crank, benadryl (yes, benadryl), alcohol, xanax... it's all voluntary, so people can leave if they want to, but they're always free to return. it's worth a shot.