Recognizing an Emergency

Families and friends sometimes have a difficult time making the hard decision to phone for emergency help when a family member or friend with a psychiatric disability is experiencing severe symptoms.  Sometimes the situation is clearly an emergency. Other times, it’s not so clear, especially when a person’s psychiatric disorder is emerging and/or family members and friends are inexperienced.

Here are some guidelines from NAMI San Francisco to help:

The situation is an emergency when your family member or loved one is:

• Inflicting or attempting to inflict serious bodily harm on another.
• Gravely disabled: unable to provide for own food, clothing, shelter to the extent that death, bodily injury or physical debilitation might result without treatment.
• Attempting suicide or behaving as though he or she intends to follow through with verbal threats.
• Mutilating or attempting to mutilate himself/herself.
• Acutely distressed by hearing or seeing things which do not exist.
• Expressing serious thoughts about hurting themselves or someone else
• Experiencing uncontrollable anxiety or anger.
• Having a severe reaction to psychiatric medication