I have to agree with splitimage.....not all psych hospitals are horrible.....heaven knows, I have seem myshare of all different ones & from involuntary stays to voluntary. I have been in psych wards that are part of medical hospitals to specalized psych hospitals to an eating disorders treatment center.

I had never known anything about them until I was 42 & depression hit after I lost my career. The first time I was put into a psych hospital was after an OD, so it wasn't a good experience that time, but it was in a small local hospital where my own pdoc practiced. They also had a good outpatient program. Then my insurance got involved in saying where I could & couldn't go.....ended up in UCLA's psych hospital & thought I was going to really freak out........I had an anxiety attack so bad that they allowed me to sleep in the TV area. Then the stupid insurance ended up forcing me to go to a hospital almost 100 miles away from home because they wouldn't cover the psych ward in the local hospital. The experiences when I was in the closed unit after OD's were probably the worst experiences of all.......but as time passed, so did those feelings.

The last experience was right after my Mother died.....my Pdoc knew I was sick & the only part of the hospital he could put me in was a psych ward until my medical doctor realized how medically sick I really was.

I found the hospitals that specialized in mental health that were private were much better than most of the psych wards within the hospitals.......sadly, it's usually up to your own pdoc to have the contacts with the good care facilities. No matter what, I know when I was really feeling bad, the hospital was a safe place most of the time......the only time it wasn't for me was a situation where I wasn't feeling any better when they released me than when I came in......needless to say, what happened then, changed hospital policy big time.

I can truely say that most of the people working in the hospitals really cared & gave good treatment....some of the pdocs I ended up seeing left a lot to be desired but the rest of the care was good & it was a good time to be away from what it was that was causing the depression.
Debbie