Brittany and 5150

Brittany Spears is protected by 5150 because the statute was enacted to help protect those who can't (or aren't willing to) protect themselves. Because people with mental health issues are so often unable to recognize the severity of their problems, the 5150 grants family and friends the ability to commit a loved one to a mental health hospital (without their consent) for up to 72 hours. The idea behind this is to help keep the patient and those around them safe and give them the opportunity to be more closely evaluated.
So often, manic/depressives are given medicine and once they notice that they are "better" they quit taking the prescribed meds and quickly become detrimental to themselves and others once again. They do not always have the capacity to understand that they need the medicine to continue to function normally and healthily in society. 5150 allows those closest to the individual to make an informed decision on the individual's behalf, if they are not rational to do so on their own. In Brittany's case, she was not only a risk to herself but also to her small children. I believe her safety was the number one goal of her family and the mental health faculty, but due to her celebrity, she is being publicly ridiculed and analysed in a way you or I never would. The anonymity that we believe is supposed to come with mental health aid does not exist for someone with that amount of star power. I feel that this lack of celebrity privacy is not only a disservice to the mental health system (which then perpetuates the negative stigma of mental health treatment), but to the overall treatment benefit and future health of someone with Brittany's amount of celebrity. The media's need to cover every aspect of these sort of personal issues goes against, in my opinion, journalist/source as well as the fairness ethical standards set up by the SPJ National Ethics Committee.