This post in HealthUnlocked is to review my personal experience in psychiatric hospitals in California, USA.
Overall, I rate my personal experience at psychiatric hospitals as a 1-star out of 5-stars. I was forced into a psychiatric hospital (also known as an intensive outpatient program) against my will because of the law called the "Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act" and the police putting me under a "51/50 hold" and "52/50 hold."
I was treated like a caged animal while here. The nurse at one facility told me "if you dare try to leave, I will hunt you down." That's the mentality of the medical staff there and also the mentality of being a vulnerable adult experiencing a mental crisis there.
Things to know:
1) Hospital is cold
2) Food isn't fresh or healthy
3) Bathrooms are co-ed and dirty
4) Bedrooms are shared with another patient/client
5) Forced to take medications (pills, injections) by demand of psychiatrist
6) Not treated with dignity or empathy
7) Stripped of all your belongings: clothes, purse, cellphone, shoes...etc and replaced with a hospital gown and socks
8) Upon discharge, you're stripped of rights to bear arms
9) Not allowed to leave on your own without following the "rules" and "compliance of doctors demand"
10) the Facility is under surveillance and locked down: you're not allowed fresh air without waiting for permission of medical staff
11) Medical staff writes up a medical report of your new mental health diagnosis which will stay with you for the rest of your life
12) the Facility you're admitted into depends on your insurance. Even with the BEST insurance, you won't get the best care, especially at a psychiatric hospital
13) No visitors allowed (during the time of COVID-19)
14) You're only allowed to make a phone call out using their phones (hopefully you remember the phone numbers to people who are responsible for you in a medical crisis)
15) You risk relapse from the medications withdrawals and changes after discharge which leads to a possible re-admittance back into the psychiatric hospital
With this review, I hope to convey to you my personal experience at psychiatric hospitals in California USA. I share this with you to help you understand what it's like. I hope for major reforms. It's not a place for healing or a place to gain freedom. It's the start of a lifelong struggle with the medical system. I'm not sure if patients/clients in other countries like in Europe have better care and a better understanding of mental illnesses. I'm traumatized for personal experience at psychiatric hospitals here. Onto of this, the psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, and other medical staff get paid a lot of money for locking you up and overprescribing medications to you.
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