Differences in psych hospitals between U.S., UK, etc.???
i've just noticed that there seems to be a huge difference between psych hospitals in the US and the UK/other places... like people on here say they're in the hospital, but every time i'm in the hospital, there's no way i'd be able to get on a computer... even if you're voluntary it's like total lockdown. no cell phones. no music, no computer. nothing you could remotely hurt yourself with, or at least supposedly. i mean you can't even keep your shampoo in your room, you have to check it out as "contraband".
is this just my experience? are there less intensive hospitals in the US, or is it just different between the various regions? Because it seems it would be nice to be able to get more intensive treatment that wasn't quite to the level that i have seen here... it makes you not want to get help, cause they're so horrible, you can't do anything, staff controls everything (sometimes just for the sake of doing so... making you leave your room from reading & not doing anything bad just cause they think it's weird you'd rather be back there than in a loud, smoke-smelling dayroom watching pointless TV *rant/sarcasm*), and it seems like the systems in other countries i'm hearing about would be better? able to contact people better, actually be living closer to normal life, but still be receiving help??? i mean we were limited to a 10 minute phone call and short visits...
anyway just wondering if there's treatment options here in the US i'm not aware of... cause i don't know if i could make myself go back to the hospital even if i needed it after the way they treated me this last time...
I've never seen a computer in any of the psychiatric hospitals I've been in (well they did have computers in the OT department but as far as I knew you werent allowed to use the internet) but I've always used my phone to go online and post to my livejournal and stuff.
In most hospitals in the UK you are allowed things like phones, ipods etc but obviously if you were suicidal they would take things away from you.
And if you are sectioned on a secure ward you are limited to what you can have.
Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different…
you once called your brain a hard drive, well say hello to the virus.
There weren't any computers a the hospital i was in. We were allowed our shampoo though!
I also used my phone to go on the internet but the staff didn't know i was doing it. It was quite secure, all the wards were locked and you couldn''t get off the unit without a nurse lettting you out.
I think it does vary though.
"Because you don't notice the light without a bit of shadow. Everything has both dark and light. You have to play with it until you get it exactly right."
yeah we were only allowed off the unit to go to the cafeteria, couldn't go anywhere outside the hospital. you either were at the hospital or you weren't, no leave, nothing like that... although it's slightly different in residential from what i hear, but still no phones, ipods, or anything... guess it makes sense people coming on here thru phones. i think here it's mainly, you don't go to the hospital unless you're a danger to yourselves or others. no in between maybe?
when i was in hospital (on a regular acute ward) the restrictions varied from person to person, depending on the percieved level of risk. some people would be allowed things like ipods and others wern't. they tried to take away my liquid soap after i tried drinking cleaning stuff, but that was too much to deal with with my ocd, and i think they got that, so let me have tiny ammounts (a few washes worth) of it at a time.
Intensive Care or Intensive Therapy Units are way stricter, and can be more like what you were describing. almost everything had to be kept in a locked cupboard, and you could only have so much out at a time - i was only allowed one book for example, even though nobody would tell me why to would be more dangerous.
"Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world"
Yeah the last time I was on acute they started to ration the amount of showergel and shampoo we had.
Plastic bags have always been a complete no no.
The first few times on acute we were allowed lighters but after small fires they quickly rethought that idea and made us hand our lighters in, but somehow I managed to keep one back (not for self harm purposes, just so I could smoke without waiting for a nurse to light my cigarette!).
On the secure ward, there was a big locked cupboard where things like our mobiles were kept with lighters, scissors, razors etc and in our room we had a locked drawer where anything glass or metal was kept.
Hairdryers had to be kept in the locked drawers, I asked why and they said because of the cord, but that didnt make sense because I had my laptop permanently plugged in!
And we were allowed tvs in our rooms too, and I suppose if we were really desperate we could have smashed those.
But if someone was really unwell everything was taken out of their rooms leaving nothing but a duvet.
On the ward doors was a huge list of things that were contraband including steel toe capped boots!
Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different…
you once called your brain a hard drive, well say hello to the virus.
on the secure units ive been on,you havent been allowed mobiles,lighters,shoe laces,even a bra!you werent allowed anything,all you had were the clothes you stood in(minus bra/belt/shoes) and your pj's.......
you eventually got to wear your shoes,then bra...though they would take them back if they deemed a risk....you were alowed to use a mobile phone,but only at the dining table and you had to hand your phone in after.
acute ward,which has a locked main door,varied with risk,but in general,no plastic bags,cans,razors,lighters,no mobiles with a camera.....
the only time ive been able to use a computer in hosp,or get on the internet was in a ed unit,but you only had a limited amount of time,and lots of sites were banned,and you had to be supervised.
none of them allowed you to have laptops.
In the hospital I was in it depended on your risk. If it wasn't high you were allowed pretty much anything (apart from the obvious like blades, pills, lighters, alcohol etc) - belts, shoelaces, things with cables like straighteners, earphones, shampoo, phone (as long as the camera was covered with tape but they were pretty relaxed about that rule). However if you were at a high risk or in the INA stuff was taken away from you. They didn't have mirrors or sinks in the INA bedrooms, it was all furniture you couldn't pick up and throw. I know one girl who was in there who was only allowed one activity at a time (like one book or pack of cards or art stuff). So it really does depend.
We weren't allowed TVs in our rooms because they thought if we did we'd spend all of our time in there. We had computers in the school but most sites were blocked &we were allowed laptops but there was no wireless connection so we couldn't get onto the internet.
we were allowed mostly everything in my acute ward. i had lighters, cigarettes, razors, shampoo, plastic bags, belts - you name it, i had it. rarely were bags ever checked, i think that only happened if someone was on a section and repeatedly severely self harmed, usually they'd be on one-to-one obs but people could still hurt themselves then, too. the first three times i was on the ward, they even had an "unlocked door" policy. shampoo and stuff were left in the bathrooms too, everyone had access to it.
how weird... back a year and a half ago i was a bit bad and went in, and I SIed in the hospital, which took some thought considering how much of a lockdown it automatically is. anyway, they would absolutely FREAK... i mean it was stupid stuff, like scratching my arm really hard or stuff like that, and they acted like i was trying to kill myself... i think them overreacting makes it worse... yes i needed to stop SIing, but making it so restrictive kinda made me want to SI in the hospital, because I felt out of control. wish it was like you guys describe it, more balanced... sad thing is i actually did make a half assed suicide attempt in the hospital once despite the restrictions (might have worked might not have, who knows), and they had no clue... and even other patients including me i could see were more likely to think about suicide in the hospital when stuff slipped through restrictions cause it was like their only chance wheras had it kinda been there, i think people would be less likely to feel desperate. maybe i'm wrong, but that's how it seemed... i mean of course if someone did try something you'd have to take it away, but it seems like if they seem fine with whatever potentially harmful thing, why take it away and with it their sense of control...
yeah peace, the hospitals ive been in here in the us are how you described. complete lockdown and you couldn't have anything except shampoo, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a comb, soap and a book if you wanted. no technology of any kind and no books with spirals. and there was no such thing as leave. we didn't even leave the unit for meals. there was a cafeteria on the unit. also, one of the hospitals didn't even allow smoking at all. and as for blow drying your hair, one hospital allowed it but only in a certain room and with supervision.
also, in one hospital i was in the intensive ward for a little while. that was truely intense. you couldn't even have your clothes in your room. you had to ask for them when you wanted them. all that was in your room was a bed. i asked for a book one night cause i knew i wouldn't sleep well because of the light in the room that you can't turn off, and they said they weren't supposed to let me have it in my room but they made an exception. everything was bolted down, also, so people couldn't throw things. it was interesting.
"i find if kind of funny
i find it kind of sad
the dreams in which i'm dying are the best i've ever had
i find it hard to tell you
i find it hard to take"
"when your savings is dry
and you can't stop from crying
you got to suck it up"
and actually this is a stupid question but those in england who can have their cellphone with them, i take it you're allowed to make calls with it? that would have been awesome in the hospitals i was in as we had payphones that were only available when there were no groups and you were supposed to limit your calls to 10 minutes.
"i find if kind of funny
i find it kind of sad
the dreams in which i'm dying are the best i've ever had
i find it hard to tell you
i find it hard to take"
"when your savings is dry
and you can't stop from crying
you got to suck it up"
I went to a specialist self harm unit where their ethos was that by not allowing some to self harm they would find ways to do it anyway and not really get better.
So they allowed us to self harm. None of our bags were ever searched and we had a free reign, we could go out when we liked and do what we wanted (although there was a heavy schedule of groups during the day we were supposed to go to).
The idea was that by allowing us the choice to self harm, we could explore why we needed to do it in therapy and work on reducing it.
The rule was that if you self harmed you reported it within two hours and accepted any treatment necessary.
And so in our rooms we all had razors and pills and stuff. It was a bit odd at first!
Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different…
you once called your brain a hard drive, well say hello to the virus.
I was allowed lots of things... pretty much anything I wanted apart from razors, to shave my armpits, and pills - paracetomol etc for headache. I did get very hairy!
I also managed to throw up my food lots of times on one to one obs. If there's a will, there's a way.
in my ward, people would self harm in the dorms, if you told the staff they'd just be like "oh okay". lol. i suppose we're free to choose some of our actions! xxx
Sounds like I'm sort of lucky. Right now I'm under section so things are slightly different to the last time I was an IP.
All my bags get searched (although not v well since I still have blades), I'm not allowed to leave the ward without a member of staff, I have no leave allowences right now (but that can be earned going from no leave, to leave with staff, to leave with nearest relative, then with time restricted leave with a responsible person, and ultimatly time restricted leave independently), I'm allowed my MP3 player and phone, and we have a computer on the ward - you have to be supervised but most of the time staff are pretty good since most sites are blocked anyway! - I'm not allowed plastic bags or belts or anything like that... heck, I'm not even allowed a plastic spoon in my room!! Weird since I've got all my toiletries (excluding razors - but I can ask staff for one so long as I give it back to them once I've finished with it so they can check it's all in one piece), similarly I have my hair straightners and hair drier, but I have to ask staff for them and have to be supervised when using them. I do have my lighter but they have to do a risk assessment to let me keep it!! Thankfully I don't have a history of burning myself, so that's okay.
When I was voluntary most of the above still applied but I wasn't escorted everywhere and also I was only checked on four times a day rather than every 15mins!
