You're probably right, but the law tends to have set ways of doing things.
Mental health restrictions are something that can be incredibly abused. The CIA and the NSA like to use "mental instability" as a way to discredit and sanction people that "stray off the reservation" -an awful term (why did they hire them in the first place, then, if they are so mentally unstable?). The Soviet Union was notorious for using it as a weapon against dissidents.
It is (and should be) very difficult to restrict the freedom of folks that have issues with mental health. I know of one chap, that I consider a close acquaintance, if not a friend, that is in very bad physical shape. He's about 400 pounds, can barely walk, if he falls down, he can't get back up, yet insists that he can live alone, with no assistance. If any one of us bring up the fact that he's basically a "dead man walking," he shuts us down, so we have to watch him do this to himself. I have asked social workers if there's anything we can do (we live in New York, which is quite a "nanny" state), and they say no. He's of sound mind (arguable), and no one can force him to have a home health aide, or put him in assisted living. He's quite likely to be found dead in his apartment, one day, and he seems fine with that.
But when someone wants to kill themselves, they very much could be a real danger to folks that don't want to go down with them -even if they swear they aren't. It's fairly important that the authorities have the power to intervene.
Mental health restrictions are something that can be incredibly abused. The CIA and the NSA like to use "mental instability" as a way to discredit and sanction people that "stray off the reservation" -an awful term (why did they hire them in the first place, then, if they are so mentally unstable?). The Soviet Union was notorious for using it as a weapon against dissidents.
It is (and should be) very difficult to restrict the freedom of folks that have issues with mental health. I know of one chap, that I consider a close acquaintance, if not a friend, that is in very bad physical shape. He's about 400 pounds, can barely walk, if he falls down, he can't get back up, yet insists that he can live alone, with no assistance. If any one of us bring up the fact that he's basically a "dead man walking," he shuts us down, so we have to watch him do this to himself. I have asked social workers if there's anything we can do (we live in New York, which is quite a "nanny" state), and they say no. He's of sound mind (arguable), and no one can force him to have a home health aide, or put him in assisted living. He's quite likely to be found dead in his apartment, one day, and he seems fine with that.
But when someone wants to kill themselves, they very much could be a real danger to folks that don't want to go down with them -even if they swear they aren't. It's fairly important that the authorities have the power to intervene.