The misuse of Florida's Baker Act Statute (Research Paper Sample)

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The misuse of Florida's Baker Act Statute
First of all, the Florida Baker’s Act Statute was enacted in order to pave way for procedural involuntary checkup of any given patient (that is, the crisis or emergency inspection and checkup). The officers in charge can be given a go ahead by mental health officers, officials that enforce law or just general medical practitioners. Every move or decision in life has consequences. This act in turn was not an exception. There are many outcomes due to this act, some of which are not very desirable, especially in hospital section where urgency as well as swift move is needed; the psychiatric crisis centers and other hospital emergency sections. Therefore, this research presents one of the negative impacts that this act has had on hospital emergency departments, with an aim of seeking alternative means of carrying out involuntary inspection of patients’ medical conditions. The research shall thus display clear scenarios that arise due to improper use as well as application of the Florida's Baker Act Statute. Most of its provision are carelessly employed by malicious individuals to cause and perpetuate harm to others CITATION Atk06 \l 1033 (Atkinson), events that in turn cause an unnecessary log jam and backlog of patients in hospital emergency sections and psychiatric crisis centers all over the medical facilities in the state of Florida.
To begin with, any homeless individual seeking a place to obtain something for his/her stomach gains access to these emergency sections withe the helps of the provisions of the Baker’s Act. The provision that is mostly deployed by such individuals is that which allows representation of any individual who is unable to make the required medical decision due either age or critical injuries that renders them completely unable to provide the relevant information regarding the operations that the physician wishes to execute on them. In the name of having a patient they want to represent, these individuals gain access to the facilities so as to attend to their stomach needs. The place end up containing more than enough individuals, some of which are in for other reasons other than receiving treatment.
Additionally, misuse of the Florida’s Baker Act Statute is perpetuated by lazy law enforcement officers who disregard the professional and ethical issues of their work. These are the kind of officers who fail to effectively deal with individuals who show signs of being intoxicated or mentally unwell. Such acts by the law enforcement officers could be due to some personal issues like past experiences with such individuals. Another probable reason is mere negligence by such officers. As a result, these individuals find their way into medical centers. When physicians meet such individuals around, they simply conclude that they are patients awaiting their service when the reality is they are not. Some of them, with reasons outlined in the previous paragraph, enter these sections and cause genuine patients to wait; a real backlog of patients genuine that are not needed.
Besides, one of the major provisions of Florida’s Baker Act requires that patients remain at the treatment centers for at least twelve hours for a physician to proceed with medical checkup on them. Worse still, the go ahead to carry out such inspection could be granted by a judge, just yet another waiting process. Bearing in mind that this is an emergency section of a hospital, and that medical officers have to act swiftly so as to be available for the other critically injured patients, then the twelve hours provision really plays a major roles in curtailing such swift movements. Alternatively, most lazy and uncaring officers will want to snatch such opportunities to carry out their own personal duties since they are allowed by the provision of the act to wait for about twelve hours. Correspondingly, in situations where the number of critically injured patients is acutely escalating, like it is always the case nowadays, then not only the medical officers to attend to them but also space will be an issue for the patients. With physicians who like joyriding whenever they detect the slightest of an opportunity, no one would ever wish to imagine how the situation in these sections of the hospital will look like. The end product being a huge backlog of patients.
Another provision which is commonly misused as far as the Florida’s Baker Act Statute is concerned is committing an individual simply by the requirement of the act validating that one is mentally ill and hence very risky to both him/herself and the public. Through this requirement, most family members could get each other committed so as to gain sole control over a given property, a move that the committed members were strictly against. In a similar manner, this is also possible in partnership businesses where one partner decides to gain the business ownership through scrupulous means. In case the other partner stands firm against the move, the member simply looks for two medical practitioners to sign a certificate indicating that the person is indeed mentally unfit and thus gets him/her committed in psychiatric center CITATION Kit10 \l 1033 (Kitchener and Jorm). The worst effect of this to hospitals is where the two bribed officers are members of the hospital in which the individual is being held. These physicians will do all they can to ensure that the person remain held up in the center for as long as their source wishes. All injustices, like injection of inappropriate drugs to indeed turn the individual into mental unfit person, will be carried out. The two physicians might even want to commit themselves to serve the person so that the truth might never be revealed; not as long as their source is not yet done.
On the same issue of commitment, most of the old people tend to be a burden, as some people think. Appropriate measures to get rid of them are in turn taken by their guardians. With the Baker’s law in play, the guardians to these old people opt for psychiatric centersCITATION Kap08 \p 230-232 \l 1033 (Kapp, Sajativic and Loue 230-232). They fake all the necessary documents and thus proceed to have them committed to such centers. This is usually done at the back of the victims. Other malicious and greedy guardians would want to have them detected in psychiatric centers so as to enjoy their insurance cash. Since the more number of patients there are in these sections the more amount of insurance a given hospital receives, the facility operators may also opt to have as many frail adults locked up in their facility as possible. This means that the psychiatric sections contain unnecessary backlogs that do not need to be there.
Careless use of the Florida Baker Act Statute leaves the emergency department of hospitals frequently abused with teachers who want to simply get rid of those students they think are disruptive in their schools or classes. Most administrators tend to misuse the Baker’s Act by scaring such kids’ guardians to take them out of their schools by insisting that they are a threat to the safety of others. Such kids could end up in psychiatric centers simply because the parents trusted the teachers, and hence took them to the psychiatric facilitiesCITATION Kic \p 55-61 \l 1033 (Kichener and Jorm 55-61).
To sum up all the above scenarios proving that careless use of the Florida Baker Act Statute has played a greatly annoying role in filling up the emergency sections of all hospitals statewide, the key issue is seen to emanate from the source that makes a decision to render an individual as being mentally ill, and hence a great threat to the general public. One might just call the police to come and arrest a neighbor after having a fight, where one goes ahead to reframe the story so that the neighbor indeed seems to be mentally ill and that he was a threat to him/her. Also, someone could be depressed due to some reasons like losing their loved ones. When another person finds them in such conditions, they may recommend they see a psychiatric. Additionally, a patient may attend a medical facility rigorously stressed up. A psychiatrist noticing that, s/he may right away recommend that...