I mentioned in a previous HN thread that there likely wasn't a line Facebook could cross that might make me delete my account. I'm not there yet, but I'm willing to admit before that I was wrong. If I posted on Facebook, I would leave the platform here and now.
I've had two friends who went to take advantage of university counseling services for anxiety and depression that they wanted help with, only to be committed to a local hospital involuntarily for saying the wrong thing until their families intervened to have them discharged. The episode would have merely been stressful for them, but they were each restricted from returning to their classes until the next semester. Neither of them were at any level of risk for suicide or self-harm, but the universities they went to naturally were obligated to err on the side of caution.
Such events are relatively rare, but keep many students who are suffering from mental illness from taking the risk of using available resources.
I'd honestly hate to be committed because I was a little too sarcastic in a Facebook comment, and much like public universities I fear Facebook is incentivized to make the least risky call.
> Such events are relatively rare, but keep many students who are suffering from mental illness from taking the risk of using available resources.
Even more: Exactly these kinds of rules lead to a strong incentive to simply commit the suicide because talking about it, will lead to worse consequences.
In the US, state laws strictly regulate who can and cannot be involuntarily committed to psych wards. Staff at the university really can't be any more "strict" or "harsh" than staff at any other councelling center.
In recent decades, psych-laws have become more strict because as a society we have decided that it is better to involuntarily detain 20 people for a few days rather than let one person end their life. That seems like a pretty fair tradeoff to me, although one that reasonable people could easily disagree on. If you disagree, you should be lobbying your state psychological association, not complaining about random therapists at colleges.
States often allow psychological holds and extensions.
There’s little to no evidence required to keep someone for days or weeks under “observation”. Some states setup entirely separate court systems without due process, since commitment is a “civil matter”.
Some amount of blame falls with states allowing this type of behavior.
The burden is on psychologists to demonstrate the practices work and hospitals are properly equipped.
I've had two friends who went to take advantage of university counseling services for anxiety and depression that they wanted help with, only to be committed to a local hospital involuntarily for saying the wrong thing until their families intervened to have them discharged. The episode would have merely been stressful for them, but they were each restricted from returning to their classes until the next semester. Neither of them were at any level of risk for suicide or self-harm, but the universities they went to naturally were obligated to err on the side of caution.
Such events are relatively rare, but keep many students who are suffering from mental illness from taking the risk of using available resources.
I'd honestly hate to be committed because I was a little too sarcastic in a Facebook comment, and much like public universities I fear Facebook is incentivized to make the least risky call.