I was hospitalized for 13 days around Thanksgiving last year. That limited my treatment days with my psychiatrist in the hospital, as he didn't come in on weekends or holidays but let his residents (he works with the local university medical center) cover for him. I saw someone each day except one when they missed me--the first day I was there, so they violated my rights as I was involuntarily commited after checking in voluntarily at an ER room. The psychiatrist gave me mindfulness tapes to listen to, suggested books to read for self-help, and I had one private session with a therapist during the two weeks. Everything else was "group"--they were activities or things led by the therapist. Like one session would be on self-esteem. Another might be on coping strategies. The group activities might be a game, or singing. They were designed to give us a chance to interact with others in the psych ward. They had everyone grouped together--substance abuse (they did have a separate group activity for them 2-3x a week), psychotics, and depressed/bipolar folks. There was a section for the more-severely ill and for the elderly with dementia in another part of the building. We had 1-4 per room, and only patients were allowed in the rooms. We were expected to go to group meetings and meals in the dining room and make our beds, take care of ourselves. We had to go to the nurse's window 2x day to get our meds. Visiting hours were limited to 6-8 PM M-F with 1-4 also available on weekends and holidays. One tech person was assigned to check on our whereabouts and health every 15 minutes, day and night, for our safety. So you left your door adjar so they didn't wake you while you were sleeping by the noise of opening the door to look in on you. The rooms were pretty bare, old hospital beds, etc. so there were no cords anywhere that you could use to hang yourself. No one was allowed belts or shoelaces or razors. You could borrow an electric razor to use in the one restroom off the lobby only. I had to listen to my tapes in a little office off the lobby; I could only take them to my room if there was battery life in the machine to run them. We had one large group meeting every day after breakfast, when we set a small goal for the day. There was one smaller group meeting for each of us, and 1-2 activity sessions, and the special SA sessions as well. Then a final large group meeting to review if we had met our goals for the day or share anything positive that happened after visiting hours at night.

It was reasonable care, but nothing that really helped a great deal. Not enough individual counseling. But OK to assess med changes, etc. in a monitored setting and allow a suicidal crisis to pass. Not something you'd want to return to.