What has been the effect of Covid on substance use and mental illness?

Hello, everyone, and welcome back. It’s Mark. And in this video, I want to talk to you about the effects of COVID. And I want to focus on the effects of covert visa, visa, substance use and mental illness. So just so we’re clear, this video has nothing nothing to do with what your position is on vaccinations or masks or shutdowns or lockdowns or any of that stuff.

What we focus here on a Baker Act Attorneys, and also at our sister firm, which is drug and alcohol attorneys, is dealing with cases where somebody has a substance use disorder and or a mental health disorder. So since Covet came along, I can tell you that we have seen a significant uptick in two things. One, the number of cases, the number of calls that we’re getting where people need help and to the severity of the calls. And it’s just our observation is that I think that folks have been sort of so disconnected from each other for a significant period of time that that’s had a big impact. Also, individuals who may not have had a substance use disorder started to drink, started to do other types of substances.

And folks who were in recovery, who could no longer get to meetings, who were cut off from their loved ones, were tending to relapse. And so we have seen a significant uptick. Now on the Baker’s side of things, we saw a lot of people who were going to emergency rooms looking for help. They were dealing with issues of anxiety and depression. And unfortunately, if they met some of the criteria to be detained.

And I don’t mean the Baker criteria. I mean the criteria that we sort of have determined are almost certainly going to get your Baker acted. They ended up stuck in a situation which they certainly did not anticipate. They have ended up going to a hospital looking for help, and they’ve ended up getting detained and becoming a Ward of the state. And that’s how the case comes to us.

Now on the other side of the practice, which is the drug and alcohol attorney side, where my partner Ordra is running things, where we’re actually putting people into treatment. And we had a lot of March for an act and guardianship cases, the severity of those cases has gone up significantly. And I think part of it has to do with the fact that people that may have needed treatment weren’t able to get to it because treatment facilities were not taking anybody or were limiting the amount of people that were there. And that didn’t help things. And so we’ve seen a real uptick in people who are dealing with issues of substance use, mental illness, the severity of the cases, he’s really off the charts.

And so what I would tell you is, if you’re a family and you’ve thought about doing something, we’re here to help. I mean, we’ve got just a ton of resources in both of the Baker Act attorney and drug and alcohol attorney websites. And there’s books on each one of those websites. We give a lot of information away for free. And as you can see, I routinely put up videos so that families can get the information they need and they shouldn’t have to pay a lawyer to get it.

But if you are sort of at your Wits end, if you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired and you’re ready to do something, then I really would encourage you to pick up the phone and give us a call. So I appreciate you tuning into this video if you want to reach out to us, the number is 855-429-0074. That’s the main number of the office for both Baker Act Attorneys and Drug and Alcohol Attorneys. And with that said, care see you in the next video. Bye.