[Queenmab61]

Hello Everyone,

Who reads this, my daughter is in the physc hospital right now, He can not stabilizer her and it has been almost six weeks, in that time frame 6 meds were tried none were even given a chance to begin to work. The meds that did help he will not prescribe. The side effect or affects, are overwhelming on most of the meds he has tried. Since his failure to stabilize her, the threat of a "State Hospital" lingers in her every thought as well as mine. In the state you must have an attorney, when commitment happens (she originally went in voluntary ).

Her lawyer to say the nicest thing about him, nothing comes to mind. He does not want any information as to who she is, what help in the past and what help is now available.

I will speak at her hearing on the 26th, her birthday just passed on the 18th - she is 24 and the first birthday since her father passed away, very difficult day and his birthday is friday the 22nd.... I will be spending all of visiting hours with her on friday.

I need to vent, to ppl who understand the discrimination that surrounds behavioral health and it even is in the treatment teams... within a physc hospital. Has anyone else experienced this and how to get help for her life... a State Hospital will kill her emotionally and possible physically as they just don't care what you do.. She suffers from self injury,bi-polar, BPD, any thoughts or even just words of kindness.
Thank You Laurens' Mom

[Travelinglady]

I am sad to hear that this terrible experience is happening. You say she was voluntarily committed. Is there any way she can ask to be moved to a private hospital and get a different doctor?

I have never been in a state hospital. I don't know if they are as bad as the publicity suggests. I hear you saying that you don't think he has given any meds a chance to work. Could you have her interviewed, etc. by at least one other psychiatrist to get another opinion?

I'm just throwing out ideas. I am a mental patient myself, and hearing stories like these really does worry me. I know you are understandably angry and worried and scared as a parent.

I do hope things will work out for the best for your daughter. I think we can take some consolation that people are not usually just locked away forever, even in state hospitals, like they used to be. It just means they need longer care than a regular ward or hospital can provide.

[Nammu]

That is a really hard place to be in. Standing by helpless to help. I've been where your daughter is and it is hard to be in that position too. I don't know that D.R. could do anything for you currently but they might be able to at least give you all the legal info for your state and tell you what your daughters lawyer should be doing. DR is Disability Rights _(your state)_______ It is a legal organization that is federally funded to over see the rights of all people with disability's. You can go on-line disabilityrights(yourstate).org to find the nearest phone number or link.

I was once in a specialty unit for PTSD when another woman decided she didn't like me. She was private pay and I was on disability. They took her side, and although I had been there 3 weeks to her 3 days and I had never done anything wrong or had any history of doing anything violent, she hit herself and said I did it. They put me on another unit started procedures to commit me-I kept trying to call the lawyer but never saw him until 5 min before the kangaroo court where I was allowed no defense and had already been committed before I set foot inside. After I arrived the state could not understand why I was there. They did not have PTSD treatment and I wasn't violent so I was released.

So I survived, it sounds horrible but your daughter has one of the best things going for her that I did not have. She has her mother, family! Thats so much more important than you can possible imagine. At 24 and in the midst of her illness your daughter may not always appreciate that, but having family to watch over her no matter how helpless you feel is so important. Hospitals do treat patents with family better than those without anyone, they do not want anyone calling to report on their lack of care. No matter who is paying for your daughters care you can call them and tell them the doctors are not giving medicines time to work and that they are refusing to give medications that have worked in the past. But your daughter may be refusing to take these meds too. If at all possible ask her to make the calls. She should have access to a phone it is a legal requirement.

I now have a daughter in her late 20's. In her teens and early 20's she too struggled with MI, shes now with her boyfriend of 6 years and they have a good life. You and your daughter will get though this.

[Yoda]

I agree the best option may be to request a different doctor and perhaps a different hospital. She can always request the hospital form to file a complaint against her doctor (I've done it in the past for a different reason). And yes she should have an advocate at no cost to her; my hospital had flyers with how to contact them.

[newtus]

I definitely notice people with private pay get treated way way better than those with say medicare/medicaid. i even got treated better against someone who had disability. also the person above is right if someone has family that calls or sees them the doctors do a little more caring. its sad really. its also part of the reason why i dont understand why people go in multiple times for slight occurences. i think hosital should be a last resort if possible.

i had a lot of doctors that would not give me what would work which severely confused me. this system is EXTREMELY skewed for those with severe conditions and those who dont have money or good insurance.

thats my experience and seeing many homeless people in hospitals also others like foster kids.

[pachyderm]

The Bazelon Center might be of use if you need some legal support for anyone with mental health issues:

http://www.bazelon.org

[Hellion]

This sort of thing worries me...I could easily end up in that position. That is why I was quite glad that when I was in the psych ward I had a social worker and she basically just made sure I was being treated ok, that i knew my rights and to help if they tried forcing me to stay or something since I was there voluntarily...it made me feel a little safer.

Not sure I have much advice of what to do to help her though...looking into what rights she has and maybe taking legal action as has been suggested is the best sort of option...but yeah it's easy to kind of get a bit confused and lost in a psych ward so one can lose track of what rights they really have and that they can still take legal action or challenge their commitment or how they are being treated...its easy to end up feeling helpless and like others are in complete control. I was only in one 5 days and it started having that effect on me.