Hot Lines versus Warm lines: Police and Looney Bin Lock Up, or Not?

By Gina Fournier

Be aware of the difference between warmlines and hotlines. In the mess of so-called mental health care, know the options.

Warmlines will not call the police, but offer peer support.

Increasingly, hotlines will likely call the police, who have a bad habit of handcuffing or murdering people allegedly in a crisis. Police tend to take those they don’t kill to a hospital, transported like criminals. Research what the laws are in your state for involuntary detainment.

As a victim of criminal mental health care and psychological gaslighting by employer, psychiatry and the state of Michigan, I am an advocate for the less talked about side of the picture.

In Michigan, I was suicide swatted by a hostile and abusive employer. I was not interested in suicide by cop, but Land of Motown Community College was intent on unnecessary looney bin lock up by cop for me. (“Looney bin” spelled like the Warner Bros cartoon and named after the wardens, as anyone who has been detained in a lesser facility might also recognize as apt.) Due to lax adherence to so-called standards, I was locked up, despite the fact that I was not suicidal and did not meet the legal requirements.

Nothing will mess up your life more than unneeded psychiatric detention.

According to my research, even voluntary psychiatric detention can be seen by the patient as harmful.

So be aware.

And don’t kill yourself.

You want the painful situation to end, not your life.