Quite literally, how much cash do you have and what country are you in? The more you or your insurance is prepared to spend the more range of choice you'll have and the nicer the facility will be.

I've been in a couple of rehabs for alcohol addiction, one private and one through a publicly funded hospital.

The private rehab my company paid for me to go to. Beautiful modern building on a historic estate, beautiful gardens which were a bonus as I was there during the summer, decent gym on site and a hot tub. But bottom line, I still new I was in an institution. The food was insititutional and I had a room mate. As a minor detail the care was also crap and completely unsuitable for anyone with a concurrent disorder.

Rehab # 2. Outpatient this time, so I didn't have to deal with a room mate, but basically the hospital had been built in the 70's and seen very little renovation since then. Instructional videotapes were by and large from the 70's and 80's. But the staff were amazing, the care first rate, and they were set up to handle concurrent disorders. If I'd gone there in the first place, the whole course of my life in the past 6 years might have been different.

Re hospitals. Once again unless you're going super high end private the fact is that most hospital infrastructure is old, and until very recently nobody really gave a crap about the physical conditions for treating mental health.

I've been inpatient twice - same hospital but at two different sites.

Inpatient stay #1 typical psych patient ward. Early 70's industrial concrete and cinder block design. Shared bathrooms with no locks on the stalls and shared showers. Two people to a room, unless you got lucky and got a private room or got unlucky and landed in a tripple. your Dx and how well staff liked you were largely determining factors in room assignment. But the hospital had at least made an effort to brighten the place up by hanging nice art on the walls and having lots of plants. But the staff were excellent, lots of good group therapy, and a semi decent recreation program.

Inpatient stay #2 totally different experience. My psych hospital is undergoing a major redevelopment to improve its physical infrastructure & transform how patient care is delivered. I was in one of the new buildings and it was like being in a university dorm. Private room with a door I could lock. Private shower and bathroom attached. 6 rooms / floor with a shared living / dining area. Big windows. Nice courtyard with floors that you could go outside and sit in. Again the actual MH care was superb, but being in the new building made the experience totally positive.

And my psych hospital is entirely publically & donation funded.

-splitimage