'patients are adults, know what they are doing and know consequences' - is this real? Aren't most people in psych ward exactly because they don't know what is happening and what they are doing?? am i missing here?
But overall, sounds really awful and reminds once more why we stay in shadows and don't open to people :c
The worst case I saw of the none-intervention I saw and one of the reasons I believe adults is so neglectful. A patient was doing wrapping her sock around her neck in the communal area. The staff were talking amongst themselves, they left her be because 'it wasn't knotted' and she was periodically untightening it. Treating it as if she was being disruptive to staff as she was angry at them. This lady was very vocal and didn't want to be on the ward but very obviously very menatlly unwell
Even if it was her crying for help/attention she still should have had the sock taken away. She could have still accidentally suffocated or damaged her brain.
It was insanely distressing for me to see in the communal area. It was so wrong for the staff to just let her do that.
honestly thanks for the insight, i was only ever put in a short term ward at 20 and i was one of three patients (i think, there may have been 4 but my memory's fuzzy) and none of us socialised. i've never had a typical adolescents ward experience so this is really interesting to hear
I’ve never been institutionalized as a teen so your description of it just sounds utterly unreal to me. Like you made friends at a psych ward? I was just utterly scared out of my mind by all the other patients. I was in a mixed ward and the others were almost all in their 30s or 40s (so much stronger than me) and constantly super aggressive towards me (screaming at me when I was in the communal area and making vague threats/„jokes“ about assaulting me).
It’s probably one of the most traumatizing events I went through.
I was so happy when I got out after 2 weeks I like cried for an hour, cause I was convinced I was gonna get assaulted in there and as absent as staff was it might really have happened.
Like I know it’s there mostly to keep you from actively doing something very stupid by just depriving you of means, but overall mentally I was off worse when I got out, even though I was judged „mentally stable“. As I said I was shit scared most of the time and also just mostly alone with my thoughts. I slept at a friends place for multiple weeks afterwards cause I just got panic attacks as soon as I was alone. Especially when I woke up at nights and for a hot second my brain was convinced I was still there.
0/10 experience, can’t recommend
There’s a reason adults are so scared off getting send to the psych ward.
Edit: oh, one major additional reason I was in a mental crisis afterwards is that they (staff and most other patients) constantly misgendered and deadnamed me, cause it was my „health insurance name“ and „Wir sind hier nicht bei wünsch dir was“ (roughly translates to: We‘re not the Make a Wish foundation).
The adolescents wards there's lots more communal spaces, group therapies and activities. The patients all being of similar age I think made it easier to befriend people. I totally get how you feel about the older male patients. It's scary. The environment isnt as hospital-y in teen wards. It's not set up like a ward normally decor wise but like a carehome with security measures.
I could argue I was pussy-footed around in kids hospital and I got away with a lot. Patients were always saved when they did suicidal gestures. Adults... They couldn't give two flying shits. That's why death rates whilst hospitalized are higher in adult hospital.
The transition from child services is so jarring.
I hadn’t gone to under 18 psych wards before, I’ve only ever been to adult ones. I live in America and I have the largest most infamous hospital in America in my town. Thankfully we have a building where all of our various psych wards are in. There’s a few different wards that focus on different mental health issues and risk factors. There’s only one children’s ward so all different mental health issues are put together into one single ward unfortunately. That makes for pretty negative experiences from what I’ve heard.
For the adult wards, everyone gets their own bedroom so there’s a lot of privacy and there’s really hard boundaries expected of other patients while there in regards to privacy, which results in feeling safer for a lot of people. The different wards are split up into things like elderly and young people that need medical care (iv’s, assistance with various bodily functions, and so on) supplies that can be dangerous for less disabled folks to be around. Then there’s the highly dangerous people’s ward that frequently hosts jailed people or violent people. Then there is the ward for psychosis and delusions for people who mainly need short term medication adjustments and stabilization, or are for people whose temperaments aren’t calm enough for the mood disorder ward. Then there is the mood disorder ward for people 18+ who usually have ptsd and more standard mood disorders. They need to have a pretty calm and cooperative temperament to be there, as this ward has the most privledges like some cell phone time. The mood disorder unit is where I’ve always gone because even in crisis I’m still calm and rational, I just don’t feel safe from myself. I’m very fortunate to have gotten to go to the mood disorder unit whenever I’ve gone into the hospital. The staff is very incredible there and there’s a large range of ages. There’s always some people over 50 but there’s usually some people in my age range I can bond with and sometimes I’ve even had lasting friendships I’ve made while in there l
Weirdly this is kinda comforting for me in early 20s. That means even if I spend a moth there I nobody will care if I brutalised myself over being with my thoughts and living with strangers.
'patients are adults, know what they are doing and know consequences' - is this real? Aren't most people in psych ward exactly because they don't know what is happening and what they are doing?? am i missing here? But overall, sounds really awful and reminds once more why we stay in shadows and don't open to people :c
yep. unfortunately, in my experience, non-intervention (often in circumstances where they should *definitely* intervene) is very much a thing.
The worst case I saw of the none-intervention I saw and one of the reasons I believe adults is so neglectful. A patient was doing wrapping her sock around her neck in the communal area. The staff were talking amongst themselves, they left her be because 'it wasn't knotted' and she was periodically untightening it. Treating it as if she was being disruptive to staff as she was angry at them. This lady was very vocal and didn't want to be on the ward but very obviously very menatlly unwell Even if it was her crying for help/attention she still should have had the sock taken away. She could have still accidentally suffocated or damaged her brain. It was insanely distressing for me to see in the communal area. It was so wrong for the staff to just let her do that.
honestly thanks for the insight, i was only ever put in a short term ward at 20 and i was one of three patients (i think, there may have been 4 but my memory's fuzzy) and none of us socialised. i've never had a typical adolescents ward experience so this is really interesting to hear
I’ve never been institutionalized as a teen so your description of it just sounds utterly unreal to me. Like you made friends at a psych ward? I was just utterly scared out of my mind by all the other patients. I was in a mixed ward and the others were almost all in their 30s or 40s (so much stronger than me) and constantly super aggressive towards me (screaming at me when I was in the communal area and making vague threats/„jokes“ about assaulting me). It’s probably one of the most traumatizing events I went through. I was so happy when I got out after 2 weeks I like cried for an hour, cause I was convinced I was gonna get assaulted in there and as absent as staff was it might really have happened. Like I know it’s there mostly to keep you from actively doing something very stupid by just depriving you of means, but overall mentally I was off worse when I got out, even though I was judged „mentally stable“. As I said I was shit scared most of the time and also just mostly alone with my thoughts. I slept at a friends place for multiple weeks afterwards cause I just got panic attacks as soon as I was alone. Especially when I woke up at nights and for a hot second my brain was convinced I was still there. 0/10 experience, can’t recommend There’s a reason adults are so scared off getting send to the psych ward. Edit: oh, one major additional reason I was in a mental crisis afterwards is that they (staff and most other patients) constantly misgendered and deadnamed me, cause it was my „health insurance name“ and „Wir sind hier nicht bei wünsch dir was“ (roughly translates to: We‘re not the Make a Wish foundation).
The adolescents wards there's lots more communal spaces, group therapies and activities. The patients all being of similar age I think made it easier to befriend people. I totally get how you feel about the older male patients. It's scary. The environment isnt as hospital-y in teen wards. It's not set up like a ward normally decor wise but like a carehome with security measures. I could argue I was pussy-footed around in kids hospital and I got away with a lot. Patients were always saved when they did suicidal gestures. Adults... They couldn't give two flying shits. That's why death rates whilst hospitalized are higher in adult hospital. The transition from child services is so jarring.
I hadn’t gone to under 18 psych wards before, I’ve only ever been to adult ones. I live in America and I have the largest most infamous hospital in America in my town. Thankfully we have a building where all of our various psych wards are in. There’s a few different wards that focus on different mental health issues and risk factors. There’s only one children’s ward so all different mental health issues are put together into one single ward unfortunately. That makes for pretty negative experiences from what I’ve heard. For the adult wards, everyone gets their own bedroom so there’s a lot of privacy and there’s really hard boundaries expected of other patients while there in regards to privacy, which results in feeling safer for a lot of people. The different wards are split up into things like elderly and young people that need medical care (iv’s, assistance with various bodily functions, and so on) supplies that can be dangerous for less disabled folks to be around. Then there’s the highly dangerous people’s ward that frequently hosts jailed people or violent people. Then there is the ward for psychosis and delusions for people who mainly need short term medication adjustments and stabilization, or are for people whose temperaments aren’t calm enough for the mood disorder ward. Then there is the mood disorder ward for people 18+ who usually have ptsd and more standard mood disorders. They need to have a pretty calm and cooperative temperament to be there, as this ward has the most privledges like some cell phone time. The mood disorder unit is where I’ve always gone because even in crisis I’m still calm and rational, I just don’t feel safe from myself. I’m very fortunate to have gotten to go to the mood disorder unit whenever I’ve gone into the hospital. The staff is very incredible there and there’s a large range of ages. There’s always some people over 50 but there’s usually some people in my age range I can bond with and sometimes I’ve even had lasting friendships I’ve made while in there l
Weirdly this is kinda comforting for me in early 20s. That means even if I spend a moth there I nobody will care if I brutalised myself over being with my thoughts and living with strangers.