Psychiatric Wards

[kayjay]

Hi all,

I'm just wondering if anyone has had any experience of being a psychiatric inpatient.

Were you sectioned or did you go in voluntarily? If voluntarily, how did you make the decision?
What is the daily structure like?
Was it beneficial?
What's the release procedure?

Would really appreciate anything you guys have to say on it. I don't write loads and loads on this forum, but I do read a lot, and I know there's a lot of very wise heads out there!

KJ

 

[PerfectEmpire]

I was an inpatient twice as an adolescent. The main difference between the adolescent and the adult wards is that adults have much more freedom than we had. We couldn't even talk to one another unless we were in group therapy or some other structured forum. But overall, the treatment and structure (and entire purpose) is much the same:

Were you sectioned or did you go in voluntarily? It was never voluntary.

What is the daily structure like?
Wake up.
Get blood pressure and temperature taken.
Eat a nice, hot breakfast.
Take a shower and get dressed.
Daily check-in and goal setting and group therapy.
More group therapy.
Some free time in room.
Nice, hot lunch.
Even MORE group therapy.
Break outs for individual therapy sessions or family therapy sessions.
Special for the day (could be visit from clergy, pet therapy, a video, relaxation to classical music)
Snack time
School work (probably free time for adult patients)
Recreational therapy (indoor track, ping-pong/table tennis)
Dinner!
Before-bed routine: review goals set and achieved, nightly philosophical discussions by the fish tank.
Shower, change clothes.
Go to sleep.

Was it beneficial?
Yes and No. It was traumatizing and I was afraid of hospitals for years and years after. The other patients were scary and out-of-control, the psychiatrists were evil, we often felt that our human rights were being violated (but none of us came in voluntarily, most of us were brought in by police and were very unhappy to be there!).

But as you can see, our days were very busy and the meals were decent and all that group therapy taught me so much about people and the world. The visits from the pet-therapy animals were amazing and our discussions with clergy about sexuality were hilarious. The visits from clergy were like a release because we could bitch and moan about the psychologists ect. and they would laugh with us and just be there to provide less formal interaction. And I got to be very good at ping pong.

What's the release procedure? We had to get 7 signatures before we were allowed to wear our own clothes and sleep on an actual bed let alone be released. We had to get the signatures from our psychologists, therapists, recreational therapists, psychiatrist ect. The signatures were very hard to get. We really had to show improvement beyond talking about it.

Once we were given the right to wear our own clothes and sleep in a room ect. we had to do something else (I can't remember what, perhaps more signatures???) before we were discharged into the outpatient program. Nobody was ever just discharged back into everyday life. We would be an inpatient and then an intensive outpatient, then an outpatient, then free.

***

It's a sticky situation to get into, being in a psychiatric ward. It's much easier to get in than it is to get out. Just remember that.

 

[sigh]

I've been hospitalized as an adult something like 18 times. I went through a period where I was being hospitalized often, a few times a year. My last hospitalization was for a week in January, just depression due to complete stress.

Hospitals are very different in the way they are run. If you are lucky, you might have an open airy hospital, but that open airy hospital might come with bad doctors. The people who are most important are the nurses. Be sure to abide by their rules and busy schedule or you will not get the prn you need.

Usually, you have a nice shower. I have a "thing" about clean bathrooms, so this is important to me.

Hopefully, you get a nice roommate who is quiet and does not snore. Maybe you get along, maybe you don't.

The more annoying people on the wards are the elderly and the manic (I've been manic on a ward).

There is usually an "ICU" where they put severely impaired people and these people are locked in within the locked unit.

There is usually a seclusion room where you can go on your own will if you need to chill out, or if they want to pump you full of haldol and wait for it to work. You rarely may be put in points (restraints). I've been in four points, but it was really just a mistake.

The ward is usually quiet and restrained in nature--docs tend to put a big push anti-psychotic on your list of prns's if you might "go off."

You can be on 1:1 which is one nurse to one patient (which sucks, btw), and then it goes up (I don't remember exact numbers). If you act out on the ward (break something), you'll end up in the ICU.
Even now, hospital food is terrible. Hospitals, from all I've been told, are not good places for PTSD because of the restrictive, anti-person mentality. When I was hospitalized a lot, I was having deep depressions, high manias, psychosis and dissociation. Now, they don't do much but baby-sit me.
I hope that helps.

 

[PerfectEmpire]

Hospitals, from all I've been told, are not good places for PTSD because of the restrictive, anti-person mentality.

I couldn't agree more.

 

[Keenbean]

Hey! I have been an inpatient 9 times (all stays were at least 3 months), 4 of which were under section. Even the other admissions weren't really voluntary because I was told I would be sectioned if I didn't agree to go in voluntarily.

I have stayed on 3 different wards, and they were all very very different.
It sounds like PerfectEmpire was in a dream of a ward! The ward on which I have spent most of my time was horrible. It was locked, there was very little routine, no group or individual therapy, no chance to exercise, absolutely nothing to do except sit there and go more and more insane. It was basically a place to lock people up and drug them so that they were zoned out all day and didn't cause trouble. Having said that, people often do kick off, self-harm, attempt suicide etc. I have known the police to be called in after some incidents. The ward can be scary scary place. I have flashbacks about things I saw on that ward. I have made arrangements with my parents and health professionals that if I become ill again I will never have to return to this ward. That place just made me worse and actually increased my symptoms to the point where I tried to end it all.

Having said that, the other two wards weren't too bad. Both had a gym/exercise classes, things to do like playing pool or cooking or using the internet etc. The staff would take me out sometimes for a drink or a walk if they had time. I don't know about the food- I never ate it. It looked sort of okay. Hardly a holiday camp tho!

With respect to being discharged, it just depends whether you improve really. It as fairly simple for me as I usually underwent a course of ECT which would always work and after a few months I was fit to go home and even back to work/uni for a while until the next episode. But many people are just there for a few days until the worst is over with. As long as they are convinced you are safe, they usually let you go.

Hope all that doesn't sound too negative. For me, the bad has far outweighed the good with repsect to psych wards so please take notice of people with much better experiences than mine- I may well be in the minority!

Best wishes, KB

 

[Ambience]

My experience is not that of an inpatient. My mum was, she has bipolar- skitophenia etc. I remember the nurses jumping on her when she tried to leave to come home with us, they knocked her to the floor because she didn't come back when they said, they were brutal. She hadn't even gone very far down the hall and to me it was bordering on assault. It really upset me. They didn't seem to care about her and some of the other patients seemed dangerous. I remember the nurses seemed more crazy than the patients alot of the time. It doesn't surprise me working on those wards. It terrified me as a child and I used to get funny stares when I came on the ward to see my mum, from the men in there which freaked me out some. The women seemed oblivious in there own experience. My mum seemed to enjoy being admitted in some ways as she got looked after and catered for, but it wouldn't surprise me if the nurses are somewhat abusive, from what I saw I was horrified. My mum though has never had any bad things to say about the wards, just that she didn't want to be there.

 

[PerfectEmpire]

It sounds like PerfectEmpire was in a dream of a ward!

Ha! LOL Yes, it was in a private hospital and catered to many wealthy people (I was not one of them). But the psychiatrists running it were corrupt and basically treated us like lab rats and put us on all kinds of crazy combinations of meds. Nobody ever got better from being there. I only got worse, but that may be because I was hastily misdiagnosed.

The establishment itself was very comfortable and the routine was great, but...

It was a locked ward and we never, ever got to go outdoors. We lived in a small series of rooms that didn't even take up one half the 7th floor of the general hospital. There was barbed wire outside every window. The seclusion/sedation room was all concrete and metal with a table with leather straps in the center (not a padded chamber like in the movies!). People who didn't behave got sedated and secluded. The overuse of this method used to punish patients led to a patient uprising one night. Every single patient except myself was sedated. I just hid in my room wondering how the hell I ended up in such a chaotic place.

I really hated the fact that we had to drag our mattresses out onto the hallway floor to sleep every night until we "earned" the privilege to sleep on a bed in the dark. We came in suffering only to be constantly disciplined.

Overall the facility was a luxury resort compared to some of the other places I've read about. But it still left me traumatized. If such a nice ward can traumatize me, I can only imagine what worse places could do to a person's mind.

Bottom line: The bad really does seem to outweigh the good when it comes to mental hospitals. So when I feel like I'm really not doing well, I take the money I would spend on going to the hospital and use it to go hiking. Being secluded with nature, and then seeing my T, is far more healing than any hospital visit ever was or could be. I actually have a list of alternatives to hospitalization. And one time, my husband saw that I was really starting to lose it, so he took me to a ski resort and we went skiing. We didn't really have the money to do such a thing, but the alternative would be much more pricey and emotionally damaging in the long run. So when all else fails, go on vacation!

 

[sigh]

A Note About A Couple of Good Hospital Experiences

I went to hear a University of Southern California Professor talk about how she's dealt with schizoaffective disorder all her life. She said that in Britain (where she did most of her schooling), the attitude toward hospitalization was much more relaxed than that of the American system. In the US, it's as if the Americans are SCARED of their patients.

The best thing a tech ever did for me was to let me take a bath in one of those huge handicapped bathtubs. Granted, I was naked and she was not, it was relaxing and we spoke like people. The second best was when I was suffering from thirst (I have a perpetual need for water or something), she let me "break" into the kitchen and mutilate someone's 2L of soda so I could drink something. Oh Well. And the third thing was when I had a C. Difficile infection and they wouldn't transfer me to the hospital. This tech I liked took care of me. She tossed me in the shower and gave me clean clothes. We had fought the day before, but like *real people* we made it up.

 

[the racha]

Hi, kayjay. I have been hospitalized twice; once for 3 days, the other for 3 weeks. Both times I went in voluntarily. It seems like you may be considering going in on your own; if that's the case, it's good that you're learning as much as you can before you choose a facility.

My first experience wasn't the greatest; they basically told me I had "separation anxiety" and that there was "nothing wrong with me." What a bunch of morons.

I had a really, truly helpful experience the second time around (aside from being suicidal, of course!). I was a patient at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington in Washington, DC. I know you are in the UK, but perhaps you can call PIW to ask if they know of the best places to receive treatment in the UK? I tell everyone I know with PTSD, who is considering hospitalization, to at least take a look at PIW.

PIW has a dedicated PTSD Ward called "The Center." It is completely PTSD and DID focused; all nurses, staff, therapists, and psychs have significant experience interacting with folks who have PTSD. As soon as you walk in, all staff emphasize that you are safe, and that no one will hurt you there. So when I woke up my first night there, shaking and in an extremely bad state, the night nurse didn't freak out. She understood what was going on.

They do everything they can to eliminate triggers; my first full day there, I started crying and shaking immediately when I noticed an otherwise harmless object in the recreation room area. The nurses had it removed immediately and I never saw it again. Group therapy is conducted in such a manner that we all got to express ourselves, but were not allowed to describe our traumas in too much detail else other folks might get triggered. There were two individual therapy sessions a week, along with a near-daily visit from the psychiatrist.

Let me emphasize that I was in an extreme state when I got there, and was an absolute handful of a patient. I was on 1:1 I think 3 times, I skipped all kinds of therapy the more I got depressed, and all manner of who knows what else.

I feel incredibly lucky to have had a therapist who highly recommended PIW; I shudder at the thought of where I might be in my life had I been sent to a general pop. ward where they didn't understand PTSD nor particularly cared to understand it.

Honest to goodness, there are times when I'm challenged by my PTSD here at home that I truly miss the hospital. The overwhelming feeling of safety, of knowing that all of your unit-mates understand exactly what you are going through, of having nurses that are trained to be sensitive to your needs (there was one bad apple who was subsequently fired), and of just being able to "let your freak flag fly" was life-preserving for me.

In order to be discharged, at least during my stay, the team (nurses, therapists, psych) had to all agree that you were not a danger to yourself or others. If they agree, you are released within 48 hrs.

Best of luck to you,
racha

 

[ISupportHer]

Just Want To Say A Word Of Ecouragement

I have only been there as a visitor. Too many times actually. So I will not pretend to tell you what it is like.

I'm only responding to encourage you to seek the hospitalization if you truly feel you are not safe. That you get help if you need it.

Just my two cents and good luck!

 

[sigh]

I just want to add that my shortest stay was three days and my longest stay was over 3 months when I was getting ECT.

There's a difference between suicidal ideations and being suicidal. A lot of times (at least here in CA) if you have suicidal ideations, they're like wa'ever. If you're imminently going to die. Also, the better your insurance is, the more likely they are to take you.

ta da!

s.

 

[2quilt]

When you are an inpatient, do they tell you everything about every treatment and medicine they give you, and can you refuse a medicine or treatment if you don't want to do it? Do you have any civil rights? What happens if you do refuse, say, ECT or a medicine you don't want because you have had it before and you didn't do well on it? Do they listen to you or simply treat you like furniture?