True story:

In one of my allowed & monitored visits to the loony bin at the local hospital to see a loved one.. I ran into another husband, in the waiting room.

He told me that he thinking he was doing the right thing by calling the cops when his wife was having one of her " out of control" episodes.

By doing that, and being admitted by the police as opposed to her husband bringing her in voluntarily she then became a " ward of the state". Meaning the husband had no say in her care,and the state moved her into a long term mental hospital... Which in N.J. is " the end of the road" type place... Greystone Hospital.

It took him a year to get her out.

I always made a point of taking her in.. " voluntarily"

the entire mental health " trip" is a scary long one... for everyone involved.

I have heard similar horror stories of mentally ill ending up dead once police get involved,,,

I have worked in Mental Institutions in NYC & The Bronx, as an art therapist[til I burnt out] taught Art in Special Education Classes at secondary level in The New York Public School System, in addition to the fact that my own daughter was afflicted with TBI[traumatic brain injury] in an serious automobile accident at age 4. The answer to your question requires a thesis not a simple post. There is a pathetic lack of support, treatment facilities, education, research, & funding for the mentally ill in The US. Most of mentally ill are treated in our prison systems- if they're lucky...It's-just not humane to treat human beings like our 'enlightened" society seems able to do.

How those handle it?