Baker Act
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Baker Act with a Bite
How new criminal penalties in the Florida Mental Health Act may help protect patient rights In 2022, the Florida legislature passed additional patient protections in the Florida Mental Health Act. Those new protections include potential criminal penalties for facilities (and staff) who willfully violate patient rights or conspire to hold someone without legal authority. Here…
Baker Act Law Symposium 2019
Members of the public and Florida attorneys are invited to attend the Baker Act Defense Attorney Symposium Summit (BADASS)! Chapter 394 of the Florida Statutes (commonly called the "Baker Act") is a law that allows health practitioners and law enforcement officers to initiate an involuntary 72-hour mental health examination within a psychiatric facility. If the…
The problem with (refusing) psychiatric medications
One of the most common questions I receive from family members whose children or loved ones have been Baker Acted (placed in a psychiatric facility for an involuntary mental health examination) is whether the patient can refuse psychiatric medication, or “psychotropics.” I get this question most often from parents who are inclined to refuse psychiatric…
Baker Act Basics
How does the Baker Act work? Perhaps your child was picked up at school by the police after an incident. Perhaps your loved one ended up at the hospital and, before you know it, he or she was detained in a Baker Act Receiving Facility (read: a psychiatric hospital). Regardless of the situation, Florida’s Mental…