If my son gets so sick gravely disable that he won’t eat /position long period of time/won’t move can I just have ambulance to take him to hospital to get help instead of getting the cops involve and putting him on 5150. Can the hospital put him on a hold? I have LP conservatorship. In riverside county there is no crisis team that I know of here…I am familiar with O.C. and they have a CAT team to come and evaluate at the home or on the street with the cops. I always get very nervous getting the cops involve but sooo far they have been pretty good so far but I always get very nervous and I don’t want them to hurt him. Just lot of Questions!!! trying to get prepared …
My parents have now had to hospitalize two of my brothers in this life. My oldest brother J has had the cops involved twice for hospitalization, that I remember. There was chaos, a police chase, guns, restraints, trauma. It was so scary for all of us.
Some of the hospitalizations, my Mom managed to get him into the car and take him to emergency where he fell apart in the lobby and got admitted.
My other brother who is only three years older then I am, was involuntary hospitalized last month by a trained crisis team and no cops involved. They knew how to calm him down, diffuse the situation and he wasn’t restrained. My Mom said it was very calm. No drama or trauma.
There was that article about the cops shooting a person to death in their own home during a mental illness call. Many times, in small towns, cops are in not trained in any way on how to deal with the mentally ill and just make things more traumatic and deadly then they need be.
I don’t know if your in Riverside County Ca, but if you are
http://rcrmc.org/home/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article&id=44&Itemid=36
http://www.rcdmh.org/Directors-Message
You probably want to get a team on your side before this becomes an emergency so they can assess and get your son to the help he needs before the crisis point.
That way, you don’t need to involve the cops AT ALL and the incident will be much less traumatic for all concerned.
Hope this helps.
I hope I didn’t scare you with my family situation.
I now firmly believe that getting a visiting nurse, or an assessment team in place when things just begin to go a little haywire will prevent the terrifying 911 call at 2:00 a.m. with all the guns and trauma.
Offers an alternative to psychiatric hospitalization. It says they provide assessment, treatment planning, case management, and other structured activities in a residential setting. Hope this helps too.
I know when I called the crisis outreach team that police officers came too. I think some of the workers are in fact plain clothed officers who are specially trained or certified. One nurse, one plain clothed officer and two dressed officers came to my home. I don’t know how it works outside of Canada but I have looked up some outside of Canada and they seem to be a division of the police department working with mental health organizations. I wanted my son to be held for evaluation and this was the best way to accomplish it. I didn’t think that it was the police that put someone on a 5150. Their input may influence a doctor to make that decision however I’m pretty sure that only a doctor can make that call. Even if you call 911 (emergency number) then I would think telling them that your son is experiencing psychosis may still cause them to bring police officers.
I’m sorry that you are even in a position where you need to have these questions. 
My sz aunt who died in 2007 sometimes became so that she started threatening her mother, my grandmother, and she called cops who took her to Harjamaki, one famous mental hospital in Finland, now it is a museum. It worked then, but I suppose US cops are different so maybe you should find a crisis team or something.
I have had 4 incidents in the past few years where an ambulance was requested for a crisis involving mental health and the cops came first every time… so i don’t know if you can just get an ambulance to come by itself.
I think one of the reasonings for the cops to come in such situations is because a person exhibiting enough behavior for you to want to get them to a hospital might become dangerous, so the cops come for security reasons, not to mention they usually can get there before the ambulance so are first responders to the scene.
If the police get involved, I would want them to be trained in mental health and have a bit of compassion for those suffering.
I guess I’m just getting a little nervous about everything … Thank you all for the input tips and the support!