Healthcare reform has hurt getting help for those mentally unstable
Actually, this is untrue. One of the most important parts of healthcare reform has been a mandate that mental illnesses have to be covered like other medical illnesses. This means that if your eating-disordered child needs inpatient treatment, for instance, it has to be covered just like any other hospitalization would be. (When my child had anorexia and bulimia, I heard many shocking storied of families having to sell their homes to pay for inpatient treatment that was not covered by insurance because it was a "mental illness". The brain is an organ just like a kidney or liver!).
As for involuntary commitment, it's true that it was abused in the distant past, that's why the pendulum swung so far the other way. As it has stood for the last 3 decades, it is easy to get a 5150 48 hour hold on someone. And if a doctor certifies them, a 2-week hold is pretty easy to get. But then it goes to a judge and will not be extended unless it can be proved that you pose an immediate threat to others or to yourself. If you can eat out of a trashcan and sleep under a cardboard box, you are considered to be capable of caring for yourself!
The system really fails the frankly psychotic, who could be helped often with medication, but who fall through the cracks and end up making up a big percentage of our homeless population. Very sad.
