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Getting Admitted
View my videos on my diagnosis on youtube.com - http://www.youtube.com/thecrackwalker
My Socialphobia page
There are usually only two ways to get admitted to a psych ward. The first is by police or ambulance. The other is under your own steam. If you arrive by ambulance, your emergency is treated and you are stabilized. Then you are held to be seen by the psychiatrist.
If you walk in you are seen by in-take, then triage. They take your particulars and show you to an examination room until you can be seen by the resident medical doctor. While you are waiting they make you strip down and wear hospital gowns. The medical doctors examination could be a lot of questioning as well as some poking and prodding. Depending on the time of day or the day of the week it could take a very long time before someone comes to see you.
Once the medical doctor sees you and determines you need to see a shrink you are made to wait again until the shrink arrives. This can take hours and hours if you arrive at night. I have waited over 6 hours. For the wait, they remove you from the examination room and usher you to the "psych emerg ward". It is usually full of security and cops who are there delivering patients or attending to a disturbance. You are kept from other patients and have your own room with a bed. The toilet facilites are shared. The room at our hospital looks like a jail cell. This is because psych patients can get violent and break the furniture. So it is all steel and tile.
You may leave for a smoke at this point if you are voluntary. If you are there with security they will go outside with you. Remember, you are not a prisoner- just sick.
During your wait a nurse will come in and question you for your symptoms again. Then the shrink arrives. More questions. If he determines you are to be admitted you are ushered to the main psych ward by security. Otherwise, you are released on the spot.
Arrival on the ward is a treat. Some wars are locked and some are open. When you arrive they go through all your personal possessions and remove harmful things like sharps and meds. They do an in-take which again is more questions.
Then you are shown to your room and the rules are explained. Your room can be a single, double or a ward. Usually a ward has 4 beds. I snore. No one likes it. So I get room to myself. Patients need their sleep to get better. Some have washrooms, some don't and you have to use the "john" in the hall.
Then you are allowed to do what you want. There are books to read, TV, radio, a quiet room, we had a pool table and exercise bikes. We could use the back patio at the hosiptal if we wanted.
Life on the Ward is Routine Based
It is important to be on a routine when you are sick. It helps with the confusion if things remain the same. When I was on the ward we had our meals and meds given to us at the same time everyday.
Breakfast came bewteen 7 and 8. We got our a.m meds at 9. Between 9 and 3 we saw doctors, nurses, support staff, resource people and whoever else our doctors ordered for our care. Lunch was at 12 and afternoon meds were at the same time. We had dinner bewteen 5 and 6 and p.m meds at 9. Bedtime was enforced at 11.
Our food was delivered in carts to the main entrance of the ward and we went down to collect it. We could eat it anywhere, but there was a cafeteria provided on the floor for those at liked. I ate in my room. The food was basic hosptial fair but we could order as much as we wanted. We could even have delivery if we liked.
Our meds were administered by a nurse and careful supervision was kept on what you were taking and when. If you needed a pill out of time you needed approval from your doctor before the nurse could give you anything. You were not forced to take your meds. Only encouraged.
Showers were there during 6 a.m and 11 p.m. There are showers for men and women. We can be supplied with shampoo, toothpaste and brush, baby powder and a comb or a brush if we came in with nothing. All bedding and towels were, of course, hospital supplied. It was our own responsibility to get our own things when we needed them.
During the day we saw our psychiatrists, nurses and other staff asigned to our cases. We saw our doctors daily. The psychiatric nurses were there for support and help 24/7. They saw to our daily problems.
We were offered Occupational Therapy to help with our various psychological symptoms. We had self-esteem classes and more. Too many to list. All are related to helping you cope better on the outside and prepare you for release. The programs changed every so often.
The length of your stay is determined by how much care you need before you are safe to be released. The usual stay is 2 weeks. Get you over the crisis and out again. If you are chronic they will eventually send you to the provincial psych hospital. They can keep you for a longer time period so you can recover.
There are rules when you are admitted to the psych ward. They are made for safety of staff and patient and strictly held.
Privilegs: You got privileges depending on the severity of your illness. You started out with a couple 15 minute smoke breaks up to over-nights with community.
Smoking: In Canada you cannot smoke inside public places. So we must go outside. Smoking is only allowed if you have privileges and you are not a danger. The ward will allow you leave if your privileges are in place. You can go outside the hospital whenever you like to smoke during the day. The ward gets locked down at 8:30 for head count. You must ask security to let you out after that but only until 11 then its too bad until morning. You must turn in your smokes and lighter at night. If you get caught smoking you lose your privileges. They search your room and find your stash, too.
Sharps: You are not permitted to have anything sharp. They take things like fingernail files and glass from your bags when you first come in and store them for you. You can have them back when you are discharged.
Phones: There is a payphone on the ward that allows incoming calls. You may use it in 15 min bursts.
You are expected to take care of making your own bed. Linen is supplied but you have to go get it. Psych patients are not phsyically ill and perfectly capable of making their own beds.... yeah right...
You are asked to be honest and tell them if you are in danger of hurting yourself. You must agree to try and work with them to get better. You must promise to treat other patients civily.
Once you have been admitted and shown around you are on your own to do your own thing. You can read a book, play cards, watch TV, listen to the radio or even play pool or ping-pong. The paper is delivered daily.
There could be 15 - 30 patients or more. The other patients are all in various stages of their illness. The various illness are not separtaed. Everyone gets thrown into together. You take what you get if you want a friend. Some of the sicker ones are unapproachable. Most are friendly enough.
Each patient has his or her own course of treatments. Some get electro-shock therapy as well as meds. Some are voluntary, some are committed. Some are day patients some are in-patients.
It's a quiet atmosphere that is ocassionally broken by someone out of control. If you get out of control security comes a runnin'. Their job is to get you under control by anymeans they can. Usually if security is invloved you end up in what we affectionately called "the bubble room". It got this name because it was a room with a door that was fitted with a bubble window that allowed the staff to see all corners of the room from outside. Your stay in there is up to you. When you behave you can come out. Your recovery depends on your attitude to try.
Weekends are long because staff is cut and there is nothing to do.
Like any hospital there is a patients advocates office. Just in case.
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