5150

 Around 80 to 90 percent of Americans.....if you use the term '5150'....they have no idea what it means.  If you use the term around a California person....they have a reaction.

5150 is a legal term....involving the California Welfare and Institutions code.  It relates to the welfare/safety of people (adults).

Under the code of 5150 legal....it says “a person with a mental illness to be involuntarily detained for a 72-hour psychiatric hospitalization.” 

So if you present a danger to yourself or others....you get the 5150 treatment.

The term 5585?  Same deal, but for juveniles.

It's generally believed that around one-quarter of society.....has some type of mental issue each and every year....some minor....some major.  Some are caused by an event....some by alcohol use....some by drug use.

So I looked it up for a pre-Covid situation in California....under the 5150 situation.  For 2019, it was 17,736 folks who were brought in.  Roughly half (8,424) were signed over to a 14-day holding situation.  360 folks were held for 30 days.

But here's the funny thing.....the listing (here) lists county-by-county numbers.  Urbanized counties are the only ones that ended up with numbers.  Yolo County for example....zero....it's the western part of Sacramento and mostly rural. Plumas and Mono?  Zero.....mostly rural as well.

The places with high 5150 counts?  All urbanized areas.  

The 5585 gimmick?  Same story....virtually zero in rural areas.  

After a while, it begs the question if rural counties are just overlooking nutty behavior or if you seem to have unstable people more in urbanized areas.