[sarahsweets]

Hospital Psychiatric Wards Now Feel Like Prisons, Some Say | HuffPost
This did not surprise me one bit.

[bpcyclist]

More abuse.

[sophiebunny]

The hospitals are caught in a bind. They make the environment friendly with amenities and risk a suicide and a law suit or they make the unit suicide proof and create a punishing atmosphere for all patients. I'm glad I'm not the one who has to make these decisions. I also know that I would never voluntarily admit myself to a unit that treated its patients like that. I'm usually admitted for mania with psychosis so I probably wouldn't notice the austere surroundings until I was recovering. I'd bug the heck out of my psychiatrist to release me when I began having insight however. I'd never consent to a paper gown or no bathroom door. I'm a rape survivor for heavens sake.

[Calla lily12]

]I was lucky enough to finally go to a wonderful hospital, after years of being in horrible places. This hospital has the best care and different programs depending on diagnosis.

[ArtleyWilkins]

I've never encountered that extreme of measures in the hospital. Much depends on where you go, and I knew where to go in my city. Mine was a locked unit which didn't bother me; that just meant people couldn't go in and out. We had doors to our rooms that had to stay open; our bathroom doors could be closed, but they might knock on the door if they were doing status checks and were looking for you. Not a big deal. Safety on a unit where patients are suicidal is a must. Patients find the oddest ways to harm themselves, and a hospital treating suicidal patients that doesn't stay proactive is liable for a lawsuit.

My hospital has made changes in the last few years. They now have several different wings with varying levels of security depending on the severity of the patient's symptoms. That seems a logical way to handle this issue so that both safety and dignity can be addressed. Not every hospital has the facilities to do that, however.

[bpcyclist]

Originally Posted by ArtleyWilkins

I've never encountered that extreme of measures in the hospital. Much depends on where you go, and I knew where to go in my city. Mine was a locked unit which didn't bother me; that just meant people couldn't go in and out. We had doors to our rooms that had to stay open; our bathroom doors could be closed, but they might knock on the door if they were doing status checks and were looking for you. Not a big deal. Safety on a unit where patients are suicidal is a must. Patients find the oddest ways to harm themselves, and a hospital treating suicidal patients that doesn't stay proactive is liable for a lawsuit.

My hospital has made changes in the last few years. They now have several different wings with varying levels of security depending on the severity of the patient's symptoms. That seems a logical way to handle this issue so that both safety and dignity can be addressed. Not every hospital has the facilities to do that, however.

This, above. Different levels of care is the key, but only very large hospitals can do this.

That said, I know someone who committed suicide while she was on the maximum security ward of a state hospital. Not going to get into it, but the point is, there is only so much S-proofing that can be done. Ultimately, people are going to do what they are going to do.

[~Christina]

My preferred IP is a wonderful place , as comfortable as a hospital can be.

I’ve also been to one that was pure hell.

Unfortunately my last need of IP my preferred IP was totally full and no expected discharges for 3 days. So I was taken by ambulance 1.5 hours away. It was hell I went from suicidal to mad as hell I did get released in exactly 72 hours. The staff was horrible, I’m grateful the Pdoc was a caring person, lord know the nurses were legit nurse Rachets

This country should and can do better

[Mountaindewed]

In my experience as a teenager at the good hospitals they just kick out the troubled people and send them to the bad places. Or discriminate and only let in certain people. Which I think is illegal? It happened to me when I was 13. I was having a lot of trouble and I was at a good hospital and they just said I couldn’t be there anymore and transferred me. I go to their outpatient office now for treatment and my T is always talking about her and Pdoc firing their clients. So it still happens.

[Ceara1010]

During my last hospital stay, the staff was often as abusive as any prison guard.

[Nammu]

Funding has been so cut and insurance companies are not reimbursing for the acual costs so staff is overworked and underpaid. All this adds up to horrible care. In USA there should be a posted phone number you can call to an advocacy to get legal protection. Every state has a chapter but they are not equal. Still any hospital getting federal money is required to post that number. Be active and call.

[Misterpain]

Last number i heard was 11.7 psychiatric beds per 100,000 regular hospital beds ,these days you have to look like a serious threat in order to get a bed ,and in most cases staying a week is the outside limit of reimbursement ,the goal is maximum medication as soon as the clock starts running on the 72 hours in hopes to somewhat stabilize you for discharge when the clock strikes 72.

Community care model was an improvement in care outxomes and cheaper in cost than the asylum system. And it truly was ,until government and insurance decided mental health was not a "neccesary priority" and every year they divert and devote money to pet projects or shareholders instead of where it should be going . About 19 years ago one of my local hospitals had an entire building that was mental gealth,different security levels ,and different disorders unto themselves , they were losing huge amounts of money in insurance reimbursement because insurance didn't like to pay older established programs and programs that didn't make "patient soup " everyone treated as one ,regardless of chief complaint or what they had been hospitalized for .

Prison like conditions will continue and substandard revolving door care will continue unless and until mental health gets fully funded again .

I truly believe the bean counters believe if you make getting well pleasant ,people will use it as vacation spot , but the key to that is treating employees better most people don't have living wages and benefits ,so there is lots of "social problems" that need correcting and they all involve equality. Treat everyone better across the board and ultimately there would be less mental health issues ,because people would have more safety valves instead of the system of last resort.

Haven't state hospitals always resembled prisons? It's a shame because if they did incorporate more mindful activities like yoga, art and music therapies, even have a greenhouse for patients to visit then I think the mental hospital's purpose would be less clinical and prison-like and more respite and healing oriented. Pretty scary stuff -- state mental hospitals. Even the short-term stay floors are scary as ****. I went to visit my roommate during her first hospitalization (first for me, as her roommate, not a first hospitalization for her) and they'd taken away her clothes, her cellphone, her purse. She had scrubs on and looked like ****. Her room was barren -- just a bed, a table and an empty closet. The tv in the "lounge" was blaring loud and there were some patients that were (I think) schizophrenic because they were yelling and rocking. Everyone was pooled together with just one nurse sitting there, watching tv, ignoring the patients around her. This must be what my cousin does (she is a psych nurse on a children's floor at a state mental hospital).

https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/nhhc/n...ric-hospitals/

Today, only a small number of the historic public and private psychiatric hospitals exist. Psychiatric care and treatment are now delivered through a web of services including crisis services, short-term and general-hospital-based acute psychiatric care units, and outpatient services ranging from twenty-four-hour assisted living environments to clinics and clinicians’ offices offering a range of psychopharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments. The quality and availability of these outpatient services vary widely, leading some historians and policy experts to wonder if “asylums,” in the true sense of the word, might be still needed for the most vulnerable individuals who need supportive living environments.

Deinstitutionalization - Special Reports | The New Asylums | FRONTLINE | PBS

Eight American studies of arrest rates of discharged psychiatric patients, done between 1965 and 1978, were analyzed by Judith Rabkin. "Each study found that arrest or conviction rates of former mental patients equaled or exceeded those of the general population in at least some crime categories when patients were considered as a homogeneous group." Rabkin concluded, "There has been a pronounced relative as well as absolute increase in arrests of mental patients."57 Especially impressive was Larry Sosowsky's study of arrest rates of patients discharged from California's Napa State Hospital between 1972 and 1975, after the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act had taken effect. Compared with the general population, discharged patients with no previous arrest prior to hospitalization were arrested 2.9 times more frequently. For the category of "crimes against property" (e.g., shoplifting), the discharged patients were arrested 4.3 times more frequently. Discharged patients who had been arrested prior to their psychiatric hospitalization were arrested approximately 8 times more frequently than the general population.58

More recent studies have reported similar trends. John Belcher's study of 132 patients discharged from Columbus State Hospital in Ohio during 4 months in 1985 is particularly interesting. The patients were followed up at 1, 3, and 6 months to ascertain what had happened to them. By the end of 6 months, 17 percent of the 132 patients had been arrested. However, only 65 of the 132 discharged patients had diagnoses of schizophrenia, manic-depressive illness, or severe depression, and 21 of these (32 percent) were among those arrested and jailed. According to Belcher, "These 21 respondents were often threatening in their behaviors" and exhibited bizarre behavior "such as walking in the community without clothes and talking to themselves."59 They also did not take medications needed to control their psychiatric symptoms and frequently abused alcohol or drugs. Significantly, all 21 of these former patients also became homeless during the 6-month follow-up period, again affirming the close connections between severe mental illnesses, homelessness, and incarceration.

It appears, then, that jails and prisons have increasingly become surrogate mental hospitals for many people with severe mental illnesses. In New York, the estimated population of 10,000 mentally ill inmates in the state's prisons "now surpasses [that of] the state's psychiatric hospitals.60 In Austin, Texas, "the Travis County Jail has admitted so many prisoners with mental disabilities that its psychiatric population rivals that of Austin State Hospital."61 In the Dallas County Jail, "On any given day you will find about 900 mentally ill and mentally retarded inmates [which] is more than twice the number housed in the nearest state mental hospital."62 In Seattle "quite unintentionally, the jail has become King County's largest institution for the mentally ill."63 In the San Diego County Jail, where "14 percent of the men and 25 percent of the women are on psychiatric medications," an assistant sheriff observes that "we've become the bottom-line mental health provider in the county."64 And the Los Angeles County Jail, where approximately 3,300 of the 21,000 inmates "require mental health services on a daily basis," is now de facto "the largest mental institution in the country."65 …

[Lilfae]

I get that they have to do what they can to reduce su risk, but if the hospital environment make patients worse instead of better, there's hardly any point to put them there.

Originally Posted by sophiebunny

I'd never consent to a paper gown or no bathroom door. I'm a rape survivor for heavens sake.

My thoughts exactly! If I was subjected to that I would get worse, not better - it would increase the su risk a lot.

When I was in a high security phych ward they wanted me to change into scrubs (not paper), but I refused, and luckily for me, there were very strict rules about using force. But at night they locked my clothes in.

--
But if they can't hang things on the wall, couldn't they at least use some nice wallpaper or paint the walls, or one wall in each room, in nice colours? It doesn't necessarily take so much to brighten the environment up a little bit.

[bpcyclist]

I spent 4 1/2 years at the Oregon State Hospital. It was very difficult. Many, many patients there for years actually have no mental illness and are being held in violation of state, federal, and constitutional law. Noone cares. Noone advocates for them. They are the forgotten people and have no rights. It is disgusting. And while some patients clearly need that hospital level of care because their illnesses are severe and persistent, a huge number--hundreds right at this very moment--are simply being warehoused and have no business being in any hospital of any kind.

State hospitals certainly have a role, in my opinion, in a good overall mental health system. But those with no oversight, such as Oregon's, are very likely to violate patients' rights with absolutely no recourse for the patients, who almost universally are poor and uneducated, with no resources. As I say, they simply disappear and are never heard from again. That's what happens in Oregon, supposedly this beacon of progressiveness. What a joke. It reminds me a lot of what happens in China or Russia. The systems are not dissimilar, in my opinion.

[ReveuseTroublee]

Originally Posted by sarahsweets

Hospital Psychiatric Wards Now Feel Like Prisons, Some Say | HuffPost
This did not surprise me one bit.

Mental hospital always was worse for me than what I imagine prison to be like. 😅😂

I have lots of trauma from there...

[tdelorosa]

About 10 years ago I was in 5 different mental hospitals.
In my experience, they are just places where they give you meds so that you're not suicidal anymore and you're always out in 5 days, whether you're better or not.
At one place, it was freezing and I didn't have a pillow or blanket the entire time I was there

[Soupe du jour]

A worse reality is that actual prisons and jails are basically the biggest quasi psych hospital. Pete Earley wrote about that at Helpful Recommendations: Why Jails And Prisons Shouldn't Be Asylums - Pete Earley

It's a shame that money and insurance coverage play a big role in the quality of the psych facility. A hospital in a wealthy area surely looks different than one in a poor area.

[sarahsweets]

Originally Posted by Soupe du jour

A worse reality is that actual prisons and jails are basically the biggest quasi psych hospital. Pete Earley wrote about that at Helpful Recommendations: Why Jails And Prisons Shouldn't Be Asylums - Pete Earley

It's a shame that money and insurance coverage play a big role in the quality of the psych facility. A hospital in a wealthy area surely looks different than one in a poor area.

The world needs to roll into the 21st century and understand that mental health is part of a healthy life. It is known that poor mental health and untreated mental illness can make you physically ill and prone to illness.

[puzzclar]

We need reform in many places, including hospitals. I've been inside as a patient and as a staff member. It makes me sick to think of how kids are being treated, let alone adults. The current system of mental health is Broken beyond repair. We need to advocate for better care and change the system.

I can't make the changes by myself, but I can start having conversations with the right people and advocate for every person that needs services on any level. I can discover and create programs for whole health. Treating the person as a human and helping them to set goals for themselves that excites them. One other idea is to create a single location of ideas for clinical staff that have little training to train them on ways to show compassion and care in their lives and to assist with goals from professionals.

Not enough people know what to do for mental health, let alone physical health. And when someone is different from us, we shame them, we set them aside and tell them they are broken. The current goals of psychiatric hospitals is safety, but safety starts with the staff and how the staff and professionals respond to the person seeking to calm a need inside and not know what to do and how to fullfil the need.

Thank you sarahsweets for bringing the article here!!

[sarahsweets]

Originally Posted by puzzclar

We need reform in many places, including hospitals. I've been inside as a patient and as a staff member. It makes me sick to think of how kids are being treated, let alone adults. The current system of mental health is Broken beyond repair. We need to advocate for better care and change the system.

I can't make the changes by myself, but I can start having conversations with the right people and advocate for every person that needs services on any level. I can discover and create programs for whole health. Treating the person as a human and helping them to set goals for themselves that excites them. One other idea is to create a single location of ideas for clinical staff that have little training to train them on ways to show compassion and care in their lives and to assist with goals from professionals.

Not enough people know what to do for mental health, let alone physical health. And when someone is different from us, we shame them, we set them aside and tell them they are broken. The current goals of psychiatric hospitals is safety, but safety starts with the staff and how the staff and professionals respond to the person seeking to calm a need inside and not know what to do and how to fullfil the need.

Thank you sarahsweets for bringing the article here!!

'A death sentence': US prisons could receive Covid vaccines last despite being hotspots | US prisons | The Guardian

And Covid has totally highlighted the disparity between the privileged and the have nots.