Which of the following individuals could be hospitalized on an involuntary basis?

• A. Person states their sister is an alien invader, struck the sister with a chair causing minor injury.
• B. Person is actively psychotic, explains that the radio is transmitting signals to his brain.
• C. Person is suffering from acute depression, selectively mute, flat affect, uncooperative with interview.
• D. Person is delusional and suffering from intermittent auditory hallucinations.

Answer: (A)

Involuntary hospitalization is used when someone poses an imminent danger to others or is gravely disabled and cannot care for themselves. The scenario where a person struck their sister with a chair, causing injury, clearly shows immediate danger to another person. That level of violence indicates a real risk to others and warrants assessment and treatment without the person's consent.

The other situations describe serious psychiatric symptoms—psychosis, depressive symptoms with mutism, or delusions with hallucinations—but they do not, as written, establish an immediate risk to others or a clear inability to meet basic needs. Therefore, they do not automatically meet the criteria for involuntary admission based on the information provided.