Hi Kevin, with my brother it was about 10 years ago. It took us (the family) two years to get him committed, he wasn't suicidal but he was paranoid, physchotic and delusional, he was sleeping rough and was beaten up a couple of times so he was definitely in danger. He doesn't drink or take drugs, but always had some sort of learning difficulties/mental health issues though he has never been diagnosed. His breakdown began when he was illegally evicted from his flat, it's a long story but the landlord wanted to sell up and pretty much terrorised and gaslighted the tenants until they all left one by one. My db was the last to leave and we think the stress of the whole thing brought on a psychotic episode. Unfortunately we didn't know until after the fact. It was so, so hard to get anyone to listen to us once we realised how ill he was. He wouldn't engage with us or accept help, we had to get him arrested to get him examined by a doctor, the first time the police doctor said he was fine, the second time we managed to get a psychiatrist to examine him and she said he was just eccentric, the third time the doctor agreed to sign him in but we couldn't get a doctor to co- sign. He got so bad that he didn't even recognise us when we spoke to him in the street, yet they kept telling us he was fine. If he had been suicidal I think we would have got him in much quicker. Eventually after much toing and froing between the police, the hse, and his doctor, we managed it. As I understood it the reason it is so difficult is because you could have an ulterior motive in getting someone 'put away'. It was a dreadful time but I have to say the police were terrific, they did everything they could to watch out for him. He has his own little flat now, he is on long term disability and as I say he is on meds and stable. He doesn't seem to remember much from that time, and he doesn't hold it against us. I am pretty sure he would be dead by now if we hadn't had him sectioned, either from exposure or an attack. I have no regrets and I am sure you did the right thing for your brother.