It varies a lot from hospital to hospital and even within hospitals.

If your in the psych ward of a general community hospital, the unit is likely to be locked, meaning you can't leave, or need permission to leave. You may or may not be able to wear your own clothes. You will probably not be able to bring a laptop, but most units have a computer for clients to use. Do not bring in anything sharp, it will be confiscated. Expect to have your belongings searched. Crochet might or might not be allowed depending on the policy of the hospital. I take my knitting to my psych hospital and in one unit I wasn't allowed to knit, in another I was. But I could only knit in the public lounge area where the nurses could see me.

The degree of therapy you'll recieve will again vary between types of hospitals. I find that there's less therapy if community hospitals than in dedicated psych hospitals which typically have more therapy.

Keep in mind if you're in a general unit, the patient population will be mixed, meaning you could have many diagnosis present at once which sometimes can be quite irritating since it's almost impossible to get any privacy.

Overall the experience is pretty boring - lots of downtime and not much to do, except watch tv, play board games with the other patients and maybe colour mandalas.

A good hospital will set you up with a reasonable discharge plan that typically includes 4-6 weeks of outpatient group therapy.

Being on a psych ward, is not a walk in the park, but it least keeps you safe.

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