reasons for hospitalization, partial hospitalization

I'm looking for information on reasons for hospitalization. What are reasons for hospitalization? I know if a person is in danger of suicide, they would be hospitalized. Are there other reasons? If a person is very depressed and not taking care of themself--living alone, not feeding themselves, not getting out of bed, not ever leaving the house, not answering the phone, etc., could that person go into a hospital to help with their depression? Or does a person have to be suicidal? How about partial hospitalization? Would a person like I described go to partial hospitalization, or is that inappropriate?

Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

That can be cause for hospitalization. Insurance may or may not give you trouble about it. Partial is an option if the person is willing to go.

A lot will depend on what country / region your in, hospitals available to you and how your medical insurance works - global or private pay, because these are all factors.

I'll talk specifically about my experiences in ON Canada. I've been hospitalized twice. First time I was at risk of suicide. I was in 8 weeks. Length of hospital stay also really varies some will only do really short term stabilization admissions, others are geared to more longer term admissions and doing therapy, mine is the later.

The second time I was admited I wasn't suicidal, I was just very depressed - that time I was in a month.

There's been a shift at my hospital in the 3 years since I was last admitted, towards when at all possible keeping people out of the hospital. Now you have to pretty much be suicidal to get admitted - that's not true of all hospital's just mine, but I think it's because it's the region's biggest specialty psychiatric hospital so they get all the acute cases that the other hospitals can't handle. But they have tons of outpatient programs that they refer less severe cases to.

I'm currently in a partial hospitalization program, that's run by an different hospital. It's specifically for depression and anxiety. I'm in it because my addictions Dr. thought I needed more support and to be inpatient, my psychiatrist didn't think I needed to be inpatient, so as a compromise I wound up in day hospital. I'd say that the functioning level of people in the program really varies, but at a minimum they're all capable of getting up, bathing, dressing, eating, getting themselves to the hospital and participating in the program. Mine's a 3 week program 9-2. Most patients are then refered to a second stage partial hospitalization program within the same hospital but at a different location that's 2 days a week for 10 weeks, and is more focussed on either depression or anxiety.

So it really varies by where you are / resources.

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Depression is most definitely a reason in an of itself for inpatient or outpatient/partial hospitalization. I have seen all levels od depression in either type of program, including the symptoms you describe being in both programs. However treatment of any kind is ideal just as long as he/she gets the help they need by getting to either one, and from past experience this can be the hardest part, getting there. If symptoms are severe, there can be issues with admitting that there is a need for help, or are deserving of the help, or that he/she feels that there is no hope of a program helping. This can be difficult to overcome. Sometimes it can be a matter of pointing out that since what doing is not working, perhaps it is time to try something else and a program is there to help, but definitely with encouragement, he/she can get into a mindset that they can benefit to try to feel better and taking your word for it that there is hope, and is worthwhile. So that he/she will hopefully enter a helpful program, no matter whether it be inpatient or outpatient/partial program.

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and experiences. One thing I didn't know was that some hospitals are more geared to short term and others have longer term programs. Good that there are different types of programs.

I'm glad this was brought up. This week, my counselor asked me how I felt about going inpatient. She and my Pdoc have been wavering on the issue for a few weeks, but not telling me why, so it has me concerned. It was good to see the posts here and the reasons one might go inpatient.

The hospital I have been in is a dual diagnosis, short-term acute crisis management facility, so most patients stay less than a week although most of my stays were more in the range of 2 to 3 weeks.

Patients were there for a variety of reasons. I was there for bipolar depression. I saw people there for anxiety, depression, self harm, suicidality. Some were there for substance abuse detox since this is a dual diagnosis unit. Some were clearly psychotic (but not dangerous in my experience). Some were there for a major medication change: I did that once as my doctor needed to make the change quickly and the med I was going on needed to be monitored closely.

Generally - a hospital will only admit you if your suicidal or homicidal... I don't recall the requirements for outpatient. At least that has been my experience... I guess another reason would be a psychologist/psychiatrist could request a 72 hour hold and probably get it.

I know all the hospitalizations I have had have been for many different reasons. Most to begin with were because of suicide attempts.....which always required a 72 hour hold. I was also in several different private mental hospitals for the long term care.....I wasn't in a good place, so it really didn't help that much.....but they also had the day care programs for us after that to keep the support going. Many other times were because I felt suicidal. I always had major horrible side effects to meds, so any time my pdoc wanted to try a new med, they would stick me in the hospital & give it a try. Most times the side effects were so bad, they would have to stop it.

I remember several times when my psychologist had actually called 911 during my appointment & other times when the psychologist I was seeing called 911 while I was talking to him on the phone.

Most of the medical hospitals with psych wards are short term, crisis treatment just to get you through the worst. It's usually the private hospitals that have the stays for several weeks to several months similar to the eating disorders treatment center I was in for 1 1/2 months. There were a few years where I was in the hospital more than I was home....but it was mostly because of suicide issues.

The year after going through the trauma with the home care person when my mother was dying of cancer, my pdoc had me go to a day treatment program. I had completely lost it from the PTSD that it had caused & was still having difficulty eating from the stress.

I was never just put into the hospital because my depression was so major....there was always something else along with it that was going on....suicide or med trial.......it was definitely a very bad time of my life. Most of the hospitals were good, but in many situations, the feeling of being locked in was more than I could deal with. I remember one time at the UCLA psych ward, they finally let those of us who had been there for awhile, go out into Westwood. The guy that took us out there from the hospital told us to make sure our wrist bands were up under our sleeves so they couldn't be seen....lol....so no one would know that the crazy people from the psych ward were wandering around through the town...lol. After feeling locked in for so long, almost felt like making a break for it especially since I had worked in Westwood my first programming job out of college....I knew all the good places I could hide in without being found.....but decided against that choice. Think that was always my worst feeling about being in the mental hospitals was the feeling of not being free to go & do as I pleased.