The Full Informed Consent: Visiting the Psychiatric Emergency Room

“If you or your child is having a psychiatric emergency, please hang up and call 911 or go to your closest emergency room.” Virtually all mental health providers feature this statement in their voicemail recordings. They also recite it when “safety” planning for acute psychiatric emergencies related to suicide, aggression, and other out of control behaviors. Prominent organizations like the National Alliance for Mental Illness and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists recommend these options as the surest way to promote safety and prevent further harm. But this unanimous messaging betrays the inequitably distributed dangers and harms embedded within the mental health crisis continuum of care.