ABSTRACT
I think of this stumble of a 32-year-old woman as poignant. Barbara lived with her boyfriend and members of his family. This day, wanting to look up an old boyfriend she had not seen for a long time who lived some distance away, she walked to the house where she last knew him to live, only to be told that he had moved. Barbara was then too discouraged and too tired to walk home. "I called 911," she told me during the interview. "I was getting scared. I didn't have any money to get home." Barbara expected the police to drive her home. To ensure that she would be taken seriously, Barbara told the officer who responded that she felt suicidal. Instead of taking her home, the officer, after filling out an emergency petition, brought Barbara to the ER, probably the last place she expected to be that day.
