Qualified diagnostics and determination of the severity of symptoms of a particular disease are carried out by a psychiatrist, but in emergency cases, these measures become the direct job responsibilities of other specialists. The most common example is the activities of out-of-call and mental health services. Teams can not only eliminate most of the manifestations of mental disorders, but also forcibly hospitalize patients in the presence of certain factors.
Inpatient treatment is usually carried out with the consent of the patient, however, in some cases, hospitalization can be carried out in an involuntary form. The use of such measures implies the presence of a prerequisite - the inability to examine or cure a disease without the constant supervision of specialists. In this case, the mental disorder itself should be classified as severe.
Involuntary hospitalization is carried out if:
- the state is due to almost absolute helplessness (the patient is not able to independently perform elementary actions and satisfy vital needs);
- the patient's behavior is dangerous to others;
- the patient makes attempts to harm himself or is prone to suicidal behavior;
- if the patient is at home, the specialist has a reasonable suspicion of a significant deterioration in the condition.
The main principle of providing quick psychiatric care is considered to be the use of psychopharmacological drugs, which allow not only to significantly gain time before immediate hospitalization, but also to alleviate the patient's condition. It is worth noting that the most common reason for calling the teams is excessive agitation, accompanied by aggression and developing against the background of symptoms such as delirium, hallucinations, fear, confusion and anxiety. In the absence of an opportunity to eliminate such manifestations or the ineffectiveness of the measures taken, the emergency psychiatric team can forcibly send the patient to the hospital.
