Reading all this makes me glad to be Australian.

We have a public and private system. We don't NEED insurance, and I think most private hospitals keep you for a maximum of 3 weeks?

The public system takes anyone. You can go in for a med adjustment and stay in for months. Someone I knew went in to come off Xanax & stayed in the public system a few days then was transferred to a private hospital at no cost to her - some special system the government has.

Personally ive been in many times for anywhere from 1 day to 4 months. You dont have to be in a crisis - but if you have attempted suicide theres no way you would be out the next day. You'd be there for weeks at least.

The staff are mostly good, you see your psychiatrist 1-3 times a week and the places are cleaned every morning so theyre not disgusting.

Staff wise, the places Ive been have had 1 staff assigned to 4 patients - so thats not too bad.