Psychiatric Facilities
Mental hospitals are very misunderstood places. There is a certain stigma not only attached to being a patient in a mental hospital, but to the whole field of mental health to begin with - PsycheCentral
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Life in a Psychiatric Hospital
Growing up with cultural representations of psychiatric hospitals as soul-crushing, prisonlike institutions, my impression of such treatment centers was quite negative. Then I was a patient in one.
When I tell friends I was hospitalized for 19 days, they’re horrified. Generally their reaction has less to do with what they think might have landed me there than with the brutal conditions they assume I must have encountered inside. In their imaginations, I barely escaped without having my frontal lobe scooped out with a spatula.
This wasn’t my experience at all. Instead I found a supportive, nonjudgmental community made up of staff who quickly diagnosed my problem and fellow…
Resources
Discovering the Lost Photos of a Psychiatric Hospital
A friend and drinking-partner of Mark E. Smith's, Don took photos of patients and Prestwich locals for years. But it's only now that they've been seen.
Hospitals Test Putting Psychiatrists on Medical Wards
To identify problems early, trials embed mental-health workers on teams of doctors seeing patients
How to Fix a Broken Mental-Health System
For the first time in a long time, there is an awareness of the problems in public-policy and political circles, in counties, states, and even in Washington.
Living in a Mental Hospital: Your Stories
Readers share their personal experiences. If you have your own to share, please send us a note: [email protected].
Medical Care Means Mental Health, Too
For decades, patients with serious mental-health conditions were shunted to isolated psychiatric hospitals, far from ordinary medical care. Thankfully, this long era of separation and indifference seems to be coming to an end. In the decades ahead, there is every reason to expect that treatment for mental health will finally become integrated into mainstream medicine.
Mental Illness Is On The Rise But Access To Care Keeps Dwindling
It’s time to wake up and address this problem.
Scenes from My Time in a Psychiatric Hospital
After a series of manic episodes, I was admitted to the Centre Hospitalier de Saint-Anne in Paris. That's where I met a nymphomaniac, a medium, and the reincarnation of Christ.
Should the U.S. Bring Back Psychiatric Asylums?
A new paper argues that re-opening long-term facilities would help solve the country's mental-healthcare crisis.
Shrinking psych hospitals may be linked with rising prison populations
Reducing the number of beds in facilities for psychiatric patients is linked to an increase in prison populations, according to a new study.
What Is It Really Like to Stay in A Mental Hospital?
I was diagnosed with bipolar about 16 years ago and it took years for me to find an effective treatment. At the time, I was very suicidal but I wouldn’t go to a hospital. I said, and I really meant, “I would rather die than go to one of those places.” But, much to my surprise, a few years later, when I was again very suicidal, I checked myself into one of those places. I stayed in a mental hospital.
A Visit to the Psychiatric Hospital Made Me Sick
It was a shocking and disturbing experience. In fundamental ways, nothing has changed. In fact, in some ways, things appear to have gotten worse.
America's Largest Mental Hospital Is a Jail
The United States does not have a national mental-health system, nor has it ever had one. Caring for the severely mentally ill has long been the responsibility of the states, starting with the first asylums and mental-health hospitals established in the mid-19th century.
Psychiatric Institutions Are a Necessity
To give these people the care they deserve, we need to bring back psychiatric asylums. Not the dismal institutions that were shuttered in the past, or settings of gothic fiction, but asylums based on the true meaning of the word: places of sanctuary and safety for vulnerable people.
What It's Like to be Held in a Psych Ward Against Your Will
I couldn’t leave until they told me I could. That loss of control felt intensely threatening.
What You Need to Know About Being in a Psychiatric Hospital
It’s unlike most stereotypes you’ve heard or seen.
Why Inpatient Psychiatry Can Breed Violence
Unfortunately, violence is a frequent occurrence at inpatient psychiatric facilities. And, unless more is done to address staffing shortages and proper training, the violence will likely continue and escalate.
Life in a Psychiatric Hospital
Everything pop culture tells you about inpatient treatment is dangerously wrong. Growing up with cultural representations of psychiatric hospitals as soul-crushing, prisonlike institutions, my impression of such treatment centers was quite negative. Then I was a patient in one.
5 Things Nobody Tells You About Being Discharged From a Psychiatric Hospital
A while ago I was discharged from a psychiatric hospital. I was hospitalized for mania and psychosis. Of course it was a relief to go home, but it was also difficult re-adjusting to home life after 5 weeks in hospital. I knew this from previous hospitalizations and had somewhat prepared myself, but there are some things you can’t prepare for and there are some things no one warns you about when you are discharged from hospital...
7 Things Psychiatric Hospitals Cannot Do
For most people, the hospital for psychiatric distress is the only safe-haven for symptoms that have taken control of the individual (i.e., depression or anxiety symptoms, psychotic behaviors or delusions, traumatic stress, etc). But for a small segment of people in today’s society, the psychiatric hospital is still a whole lot worse than going to the hospital for a medical condition. Stigma has a lot to do with this.
Psych Ward Reviews
My project will help with giving people a platform to hold hospitals accountable, and make it clear that the system of using psych wards needs to be replaced by a system less prone to abuse and denial of agency. Psych Ward Reviews is just a blog. But it’s a blog that can make a difference.
Best Hospitals for Psychiatry
The 12 hospitals ranked in Psychiatry were recommended by at least 5% of the psychiatric specialists responding to U.S. News surveys in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Another 42 hospitals recommended by at least 1% of the respondents are listed alphabetically...
National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
NASMHPD will work with states, federal partners, and stakeholders to promote wellness, recovery, and resiliency for individuals with mental health conditions or co-occurring mental health and substance related disorders across all ages and cultural groups, including: youth, older persons, veterans and their families, and people under the jurisdiction of the court.
Western Psychiatric State Hospital Association
The Western Psychiatric State Hospital Association will serve as a model for regional collaboration, continuing to provide a forum both for the education of the executive management of state psychiatric hospitals and participation in the national debate on issues relevant to public hospital services.
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