barbaral@tekig1.UUCP (09/13/83)
What can happen is that a person voluntarily commits himself to the psych hospital. Once he is in the hospital, the hospital psychiatrist can determine that the person cannot leave the hospital for a certain length of time. The only channel for the person to get out is to get a court hearing on about it, or convince the psychiatrist that he is in such a state of mind to leave the hospital. At least that's how it worked in California. So true, the person voluntarily commits himself, but that doesn't mean he can get out as easily as he got in. Usually the criterion the psychiatrist uses is if the person is a danger to himelf or a danger to others (there might be one more criterion I'm forgetting). Police officers and ministers I think can also make this judgement, and decide to commit the person.