What is it like being in a mental ward/hospital?
how mentally ill (depressed,suicidal,anxious,manic,psychotic etc) would you have to be to go to a psych ward?
Either a danger to yourself or unable to care for yourself.
do they still use padded cells?
Not padded, just an empty room with a locked door. Not all facilities still use seclusion rooms.
do they forcibly inject you with medication?
In my country they can't.
can they lock people in psych hospitals forever?
Not generally.
do they take your stuff (phone etc) off you?
In one hospital I could keep everything; in another you had to hand in your phone and laptop at night, and some teens (it was a teen hospital) could only have their phone/ipad during certain hours or a certain number of hours a day.
I've always been allowed to keep my shoelaces and stuff with strings.
what are the other patients like?
Some are nice, some not so.
what do you do while your in the psych ward?
Sleeping, reading, writing.
do psych wards actually help?
Not in my case, but it has helped a lot of other people.
do they keep the forensic patients in the same psych ward as "normal" mental health patients?
Not really. However, there's an 'exception' for those who have been committed by the judge after a minor crime (such as dealing drugs) if they commited the crime because of a mental illness. But not murderers, rapists and such.

I'm talking about the teen hospital here.