How Can I Use the Marchman Act to Help My Loved One Struggling with Addiction?

The Marchman Act is a way for family and loved one’s to help someone, struggling with addiction, who cannot help themselves. A Marchman Act is a legal means of providing an individual in need of drug treatment, drug alcohol detox, or a medical/mental facility with emergency services and temporary detention for substance abuse evaluation and treatment when required either on an involuntary or voluntary basis.

How can I use the Marchman Act to help my loved one who’s struggling with addiction?

It is very easy for the person struggling with addiction to find multiple reasons why they don’t want or need to go to treatment; it is also easy for that person to lose the mental capacity to make healthy decisions for themselves even if it means they may die; that’s where the Marchman Act comes into play. The Marchman Act helps your loved one receive emergency treatment whether they want substance abuse treatment for their addiction or not. Regardless if the loved one struggling with addiction think they need substance abuse the Marchman Act allows the family and friends to find help for that person and make sure they utilize it. The Marchman Act is legal process that consists of different steps but it is easily utilized when someone is in desperate need of drug treatment, drug alcohol detox, or a medical/mental facility. The Marchman Act is meant to help your loved one struggling with addiction.

How does the Marchman Act work?

An involuntary admission through use of the Marchman act to help your loved one struggling with addiction can be one of the greatest gifts you ever give them even if they don’t see it initially. An involuntary admission is when there is good faith and reason to believe the person is substance abuse impaired and, because of said impairment, has lost the power of self-control over their substance use; either has inflicted, attempted or threatened to inflict or is likely to inflict physical harm on himself or herself or another person; or the persons judgment has been so impaired because of substance abuse that he/she is incapable of appreciating the need for substance abuse treatment. After a Marchman act has been put in place it will be used to help your loved one through the legal process that goes along with it.

Who has permission to enforce a Marchman Act?

A law enforcement officer may also take your loved one into protective custody until your loved one appears to meet the admission criteria and is brought to the attention of law enforcement officer in a public place. A law enforcement officer has the authority to implement the Marchman Act or protective custody. Also a private practitioner, the persons spouse or relative of the person, the director of a licensed service provider or the directors designee, 3 responsible adults who have personal knowledge of the persons substance abuse problem or, in the case of a minor, the minor’s parents, legal guardian, legal custodian, or a licensed service provider can file an involuntary Marchman Act petition.

If you have personal knowledge of a person’s substance abuse problem and because of this impairment the person has lost the power of self-control with respect to substance abuse, drinking and drugging; and you have reason to believe that that person is a danger to him/herself or others you may file a Marchman Act petition which you can use to help your loved one struggling with addiction. If you’d like to know how Palm Partners can help you in the process of a Marchman Act for your loved one please give our 24-hour crisis counselors a call at 800-951-6135.