Involuntary Commitment: The Push for “Force Treatment” During the Overdose Crisis Explained
“What can we do to force him into treatment?” Parents of adults I’ve worked with have asked me this countless times. Their child, even their adult child, continues to use drugs despite multiple overdoses…sometimes alone in their apartment bathroom, sometimes on a park bench downtown. Now the fear has come true: their child is waking up intermittently, not finishing their sentences, and struggling to walk from the bed to the bathroom. Mom just called me crying: “He’s killing himself! Can’t you MAKE him go to treatment?”
Folks across the country are pleading with similar urgency. Conservatives in Wisconsin and nationwide are floating expansions to involuntary commitment options (“forced treatment”) for people with severe substance use disorders (SUD) amid a national overdose crisis.
Involuntary commitment allows the government to place individuals into mandatory treatment due to dangerousness to self or others from mental illness, developmental disability, or drug dependence.
Let me be clear: involuntary commitment for SUD is extremely controversial, and for good reason. Human rights violations. Trauma. Loss of autonomy. Shaky evidence that it works or leads to better outcomes — and some research suggesting it could actually increase chances of overdose mortality.
But as substance use counselors who have sat with families on both sides of this question, we know there are no easy answers. Context matters. People struggling with addiction and poverty are some of the most complicated clients we’ll work with, because substances rarely exist in a vacuum. Your mileage will vary.
