Don’t know if t his is the right section to put this in. Feel free to move it.
I keep reading/hearing stories of people from places other than the US where they were in a psych unit for months, just read one of a person who was in psych unit in New Zealand for 3 months. But in the US they generally keep you only a week or two.
I want to vent and complain about this. Every time I go to the hospital they keep me for just a week or two to “stabilize” me. But how do they know if the meds are going to work long term? Most antipsychotics take MONTHS to work fully. I feel like it’s the old saying “Treat em and street em”.
I feel like if our psych units would keep us there for 2, 3, 4 months then they could get a better idea of how to treat us.
Not to mention that it’s damn hard to come up with a really accurate diagnosis when a dr is only seeing you for a week. Some t hings, like SzA which I have, change over time and give you different symptoms that a dr may not see during a 1 week stay in the hospital. But if they would keep us in for 3 or 4 months it would solve that problem. They’d see the w hole picture and get a better diagnosis and thus better treatment.
Am I the only person who thinks this way? I would rather stay in the hospital for 3 months and know that I have the right dx and right meds then keep going in and out of hospital for a week or two weeks at a time never knowing if t hey got it right.
I’ve been there voluntarily and committed, different times. I’ve been committed in two different hospitals, the first time I was there 10 days and the second time I was there a week. That’s how my voluntary stays are too. I just never feel like they’re getting the whole picture, but now that I finally have a solid dx I think I’m good.
I’m in the UK and was involuntary, so they section 2’d me for 28 days then the day before it expired reassessed me under section 3. I stayed in about 3 months!
I was told by my CPN that they kept me in too long, which created other problems for me, as did a involuntary meds change.
See that’s what I’m talking about. It’s like they keep you there longer because they actually want you to get BETTER! The NHS isn’t into it for the money. But here in the US these hospitals want to keep you there just long enough to get some money and then release you before you’re fully better so you’ll come back and give t hem even more money.
Do you know who Jonny Benjamin is? Awesome guy. He has SzA like me. His videos helped me understand everything so well. Really helped me out. He’s from London but went to university in Manchester I believe. He told of a time when he was in the hospital for 4 or 5 months. You should watch his videos especially one on Youtube called “My Journey with Schizoaffective Disorder”.
Here the stays are also longer. I have been hospitalised mostly for 3-4 months at a time. I have met people who were locked up for a year or so. They get money for every day you’re in the hospital, so there is an incentive for longer stays. It’s not as if they are actually doing anything to make you better though… They don’t have any psychologists or therapy, they don’t respond if you have severe adverse effects from the medication, they don’t do diagnostic test or take a biography or do other things to make a good diagnosis, they don’t respond if you are suicidal, they don’t help you with practical stuff. They just lock you up and ignore you. So I think a longer stay doesn’t actually help anyone except the people making money from it.
It depends though. If you’re there longer and they’re giving you therapy and doing something to actually help you prepare for life outside, then they’re doing great stuff.
I stayed in psychiatry hospitals in 2 different countries in Europe.
In one unnamed country, they kept me in for 3 months and I was ready to go when they discharged me. The meds worked and I was out of hospital for 3 years.
I then stupidly came off meds.
In another unnamed country, they kept me for 2 weeks and discharged me. The meds didn’t work and I had to go back. They kept me for 2 weeks. The meds didn’t work, so I had to go back. And so on.
In SC a doctor has to commit you but it can be any doctor, not just a psychiatrist. So you can be committed to a hospital by an ER doctor or any doctor, even if they don’t have much knowledge of mental health issues.
I’m in the UK. I’ve stayed in hospital for 2 months at a time unless I get the acuphase instant release injection then I recover quicker and I’m out in 5 to 6 weeks. I’ve met a few people who have been on 6 month sections. I seen one woman who had been under care of the hospital for a few years but the were giving her a bit of freedom to leave the ward and spend time around the hospital grounds.
I can’t see how anyone can have their symptoms under control by just being on a 2 week hold.
My first stay was 4 months. Technically it was voluntary as I wasn’t sectioned. But I was told categorically that if I asked to leave I would be sectioned so was pretty much against my will.
