What are mental hospitals like?

Question

Are they beneficial or hellish? How long do committed people stay there? How do patients get released? What do they have to endure there?

Answer 1

I have been hospitalized five times in two different hospitals. (I was actually on the psych units of general hospitals.)

In the US at least, psych wards are a one size, fits all kind of approach. They are good for immediate, acute care, and not much else. The staff is under a lot of pressure from the insurance companies to discharge people ASAP, so meds are changed sometimes daily, which is not really helpful for many people. Despite the daily chat with your nurse, there is no real counseling or psychotherapy. There are good nurses, bad nurses, good doctors, bad doctors, so all staff cannot be painted with the same brush.

It’s hard sometimes, because high functioning people and low functioning people are on the ward at the same time. I found this hard, at least, because I felt constantly “responsible” for some of the lower-functioning people. Also, some people need more long-term hospital care; these people are discharged in under a week, and the psych ward becomes a revolving door for them. Not good.

Bottom line: managed care is ruining the health system in the US, and the mental health system is a great example.

Answer 2

Are they beneficial or hellish? It can be both depending on the staff and the patients they get. Some staff are pretty burned out, but a lot of them are really good.


How long do committed people stay there?
Most people are in and out within three days. A few people stay for months or even years but that is unusual. A lot people keep getting admitted and discharged over and over again.

How do patients get released?
When the psychiatrist thinks they are ready to go, and the rest of the treatment team agrees. If the admission was court ordered, there may be legal requirements.

What do they have to endure there?
It's pretty much the same as being in any other hospital except for some of the patients act pretty strange. People who are in for simple depression or something may have to be around people who are psychotic, hearing voices and so on. There can be a lot of weird behavior at times. People don't get in restraints and stuff like that unless they are combative or self harming and there are very stricts rules about how long somebody can be restrained. One in a while somebody might escape or commit suicide, get in fights, some patients have sex with each other or masturbate. Some patients manipulate other patients and staff. Some patients get picked on by other patients. Some drink too much water and act they are drunk (it's strange, but some people with schizophrenia do that). Some swallow things like needles and batteries, or cut themselves with whatever they can find. Some get mad about the smoking rules and so on. One girl tried to flush her file down the toilet, and later did the same thing with the file of some guy she liked. Whenever she came back again, we had to make sure she couldn't get her hands on the files. Another girl pulled down her pants and urinated in the floor behind the nurse's station. I have seen all kinds of weird stuff.

Answer 3

If its private then its great and you get taken care of but if its an NHS adult ward its hell on earth. Anyone can be held by nurse/police/doc's under section for 72 hours but then an assessment has to be done and it has to be cleared by 2 doc's and a ASW. The its either 28 days or 6 months or longer. The only thing they're good at is keeping you alive, but thats it.
Patients don't get released...well obviously eventually but depending why your there they tend to just leave you for months. Its takes a lot of work to get any leave, never mind discharged.
you have to endure a lot of people who are seriously ill, i couldn't recognise what was wrong with them anymore because they were so instiutionalised. Everyone just gets loaded with drugs so they're all walking around really slowly with a dazed look on their faces. the staff are hell and don't manage the patients/talk to them at all. Patients were shouting and screaming at the top of their voices in the middle of the night and no one did anything, maybe they eventually pushed the panic alarm and locked them up and gave them more meds.
There's nothing to do, staff have a way of minipulating you because its basically them that write all your notes and are therefore the best chance of geting out. you can stay on the actual ward for ever if you needed to and not go outside. Foods awful. No hot water, nothing to do.
I was on 1:1 for 11 days straight; meaning i had to be within someone arm length 24/7 and wasn't allowed behind a closed door.
It was horrific, the complete stereotype but worse because it was real life.

Answer 4

it depends Dr's do not put you in a mental hospital unless you are a threat to yourself or others and you can get outpatient counseling with meds as well if outpatient counseling does not work ( i would try this first) with medicine than you will probably need hospitalization and a higher dose of the same med or a different med and to be in hospital so they can monitor your progress. its not so bad i was there a couple times and grateful for their help. people stay there till they are deemed cure and they get released like most hospitals. Why do you wont to know.

Answer 5

They are much better these days not like in the fifties or One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest.
No more forced lobotomies or shock treatments. Electro shock therapy is still used but is elective. Mostly pharmaceuticals and talk therapy.
People can be ordered by the courts to be commited if they are considered a danger to themsleves or others.
Patients are released when they are better,

Answer 6

It all depends. There are long term psychiatric hospitals and short term psychiatric hospitals. They get medications, talk to doctors, go through psychological therapy. To get released they usually have to get over whatever problem they had that got them in there--they are usually released with medications and a prescription for therapy. If they are in a long term psych hospital often they will go to a group home or something like that.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

they are hellish, depends how crazy, when they start to act normal, when time is up or if family member signs papers to release. they see weird people but they fit in.

In that order

Not that I would know

Answer 9

if it's in a genral hospital itself , they give you meds that doesn't let you think that was my experience anyway. then i went somewhere more private and i had everything and it was like you're in a hotel.

Answer 10

I don't know, but One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest made me never want to find out....