It's not a choice the patient gets to make.

Almost all of the state mental hospitals are for criminal patients. AFAIK only one is open to non-offender patients and they only take referrals.

Right, yeah, I understand it's not a patient driven decision. I'm asking because my brother in law is diagnosed mentally ill, frequently homeless, frequently placed on 5150 holds, frequently arrested for crimes, including at least once or twice being popped, at least initially, for class 4 felonies. He's got arrest warrants in Arizona and Nevada from skipping bail. He is, seemingly, permanently stuck in the county level system between SD, Orange, and LA counties, and it _does not work_.

> Almost all of the state mental hospitals are for criminal patients.

Is this a specific legal thing, like criminally insane?

> AFAIK only one is open to non-offender patients and they only take referrals.

I wasn't aware there was the possibility of referrals. We'll look into this the next time it comes around...

I'm so sorry for what your family is going through.

My severely autistic adult nephew finally got placed in a county-affiliated group home, but getting him there and keeping him in the program is a full-time job split between various family members. He's been on a few 5150s, and anywhere he winds up half the time they have him drugged out of his mind.

Our country's infrastructure for handling these problems is borderline criminal.

I sincerely hope that you guys are able to get your brother in law some help.

Thank you for the kind words. I appreciate it. It's very challenging and I agree with you completely that the way we handle things in this country is simply horrific.