A woman with bipolar disorder said police officers and Taichung Health Bureau personnel forced her to see a doctor, but the bureau on Monday last week denied the accusation, saying it had obtained her consent before taking her to a hospital.
The woman, surnamed Yeh (葉), who works in the online shopping industry, said she had been in a civil dispute with her uncle, surnamed Yu (于), for which she had attended a district court hearing on May 15.
When she returned home with her husband on an unspecified day last week, she found two ambulances, several police officers and bureau personnel waiting outside her apartment, Yeh said.
The people said they received a report from her uncle that she and her husband were mentally ill, causing a disturbance and should be taken to a doctor, she said.
After about an hour of confrontation, Yeh and her husband were “forced to agree” to go to the hospital with the authorities, but a doctor there sent them home because they posed no immediate danger to other people, Yeh said.
She reported the incident to the Chinese-language Apple Daily and presented a video clip she filmed during the confrontation.
Yeh told the newspaper that she has a government-issued disability card for bipolar disorder, but added that she regularly takes her medication.
Yu might have reported the couple in an attempt to have them admitted to a psychiatric hospital to take revenge for their civil dispute, Yeh said, adding that the health bureau infringed upon their rights by forcing them to see a doctor.
A local health center said it received a request from a relative of Yeh’s to help take the couple to hospital, bureau Senior Technician Chen Shu-fen (陳淑芬) said yesterday.
Yeh’s neighbors had previously reported her for causing a disturbance, she added.
The bureau had received Yeh’s consent before taking her to hospital and it did not enforce compulsory admission, but took her to see a doctor to protect and help her, Chen said.
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