> I don't believe you get a court order for outpatient treatment as a result of being voluntarily admitted to a hospital. The hospital can "petition" you for c

> I don't believe you get a court order for outpatient treatment as a result of being voluntarily admitted to a hospital. The hospital can "petition" you for court-ordered evaluation if they find an excuse. It happens all the time. (Edit: usually for depressed/suicidal patients, I think.) In my friend's case, she had cocaine metabolites in her initial bloodwork. Her mother had told the "crisis team" that my friend had "disappeared" for the weekend, and when she came home she was psychotic. She was actually with me for that weekend, and ran out of alcohol [methadone-induced alcoholism, methinks] when she got home. My friend signed herself in to the hospital while acutely psychotic from alcohol withdrawal. After a week+ she'd come out of it, but they wouldn't let her go. The first mental health court case was dropped because she'd mostly recovered with a month of sobriety. But the drugs they made her drinking problem worse, and she got re-petitioned for court-ordered evaluation a month later. That time they injected her with Haldol (neuroleptic/tranquilizer) just before letting her out. She later said it "hit her like a truck", and was back at a real emergency room a few days later, due to trying to undo the akathasia the only way she knew...