Q: My dad has bipolar schizophrenia and has been acting aggressively. He has threatened to kill my mom. What should I do?
Could that help us hospitalized him?
A: From a criminal law stand point, threatening one's life can be a crime under Calif. Penal Code 422, however, one of the elements to prove is not just the threat, but whether your mother believed he had the ability to carry out the threat and would do do so. Based on your question, this type of outburst can be very much associated with an individual suffering from bi-polar schizophrenia, therefore not knowing whether or how your mother received the threat is a big issue. If the family is looking for medical treatment, this would be a time to have him checked into your local facility that provides psychiatric evaluations. Generally, medical professionals have the ability to place an immediate 48 hour hold to evaluate, and they can have additional time (with a potential hearing involved), if physicians believe your father is still a danger to himself, or they are still determining the correct medications prescribe, which my history involved with these type of cases has shown then trial and error of finding the correct medication combination is the most difficult part. Again, this is only based on my experience as an attorney, I am not a medically licensed professional.
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