my opinion is in the question lol

according to your post you asked him in a way that means you know you are goning to need to go to the hospital -

from your post

"knowing that one day soon you may end up needing inpatient in a mental hospital"

in that context it means you do have a choice.

so to me the employer was saying since you know you will need to be hospitalized, choose to do that during your non work days.

the pro's of knowing you need inpatient care is that you can plan ahead of time -

you can go in voluntary status instead of involuntary which means you may be able to take some personal items with you like clothes, cell phone or lap top, somethnig to do when not in the inpatient groups and therapy.

and on top of that knowing you will soon need inpatient care you can plan for going on your days off which saves work related paperwork, possible trouble in finding someone to take over your job position while you are gone, possible loss of income/ pay check.

I think your employer gave you some good advice. I myself have felt when I was spiraling downhill and found that same advice from my employers to be helpful. I chose when to go inpatient during my off work hours and it saved me a paycheck, and saved my employer from having to assign someone else to work by position while I was gone. they already had me on the schedule of not working those days anyway lol

and quite frankly I got more out of voluntary hospitalizations then I did involuntary against my will hospitalizations lol

if you know you may soon need to go impatient now is the time to start planning the when where how why and what you want to take with you.