Gravely disabled in California and other places means that the person is really bad mentally off or has a mental disorder bad enough to where they cannot take care of themselves.
If someone is unable to care for themselves then a court order can be issued to get the mentally disabled person into a mental health facility or a care facility where they can be properly cared for.
When an adult (over age 18) has a history of serious mental illness and cannot care for themselves, they may be considered “gravely disabled“.
Gravely disabled means that, because of a mental disorder, the person cannot take care of his/her basic, personal needs for food, clothing, or shelter.
The way you get pinked slipped in a mental hospital or psych ward is when you do something that causes the staff to see you as a threat to yourself or others.
For example if you were to tell people in the mental hospital or psych ward that you want to kill yourself or you want to harm others then that can get you pink slipped.
Pink-slipping of a mental patient speeds up the process, giving the power to involuntarily commit a mentally unstable person to someone other than a judge.
The two-page form (it is pink) declares a person "represents a risk of physical harm" to themselves or others and that he or she would benefit from hospital treatment.
A hospital cannot hold you against your will unless it's a mental hospital.
The only hospital that can hold you against your will is a mental health hospital or a hospital that has a mental health psych ward inside it.
And even then you have to be admitted to the mental health portion or psych ward of the hospital before they can legally hold you against your will.
The hospital can pink slip you which means they can legally hold you against your will when they see you as a threat to the public, yourself etc.
And then if you somehow walk out of the mental hospital then the staff will contact the police to find you and legally bring you back.
If in a mental hospital you have to be discharged before you can legally leave the mental hospital.
The mental hospital can legally hold you against your will for up to 72 hours and unless they get a court order to hold you any longer then the mental hospital must legally let you go.
However like mentioned above if you're just in a regular hospital for an illness or health issue etc then you can legally walk out of the hospital at anytime.
However if it's a child and no parent is around then they can legally hold the child against their will until the parents get there and they discharge the child or the parent walks out with the child.
The parent can legally take the child out of the hospital and take them home or to another hospital if they want too.