Psychiatric Hospitals

[+ Gar1eth]

I vicariously have had a recent experience with a psychiatric hospital. It wasn't me but a relative. I wasn't able to visit during the admission (incarceration?). But I was appalled at some of their policies. I was expecting to see Louise Fletcher as their brochure mascot. I thought the by-word these days was patient and family centered care. This place seems to have missed the boat.

 

Visiting Hours

Information about Visitation

Haven Behavioral Hospital of Frisco encourages (my bolding and underlining) our patients to have visitors for emotional support and to strengthen relationships. Visitors will be asked to sign in and any item brought to the patient must be checked at the Nurse’s Station.

 

Visiting Hours Are As Follows

Monday-Friday 4:00 -5:00 p.m.

Saturday-Sunday 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

 

Visits are limited to one hour at a time and two visitors at a time. Visitors under 12 years of age are not permitted.

 

Please note that purses, briefcases and cellphones MUST be left in the car. You will be asked to take your personal belongings back to your vehicle should you bring them to the unit. No exceptions will be made, and we will not store these items for you.

 

 

I can only imagine the amount of emotional support and strengthening of relationships that can occur in a rigid set visitor policy of times and of one hour duration only.

 

Gman

[mattr]

The only thing I question is the limited visiting hours and perhaps the complete restriction of children under 12. I would think that both these policies should be set on a per patient basis although i recognize the difficulty in doing so.

[+ Gar1eth]

The only thing I question is the limited visiting hours and perhaps the complete restriction of children under 12. I would think that both these policies should be set on a per patient basis although i recognize the difficulty in doing so.

 

Well I understand that they often have programs and therapy sessions which shouldn't be interrupted on a routine basis, you'd still think a place dealing with the vagaries of the human psychic condition would be more flexible.

 

And take the "no purses or cellphone" policy. In Texas the inside of a car in the summer can be over 100 degrees. It's ridiculous if they aren't going to allow person items inside, to not provide secured lockers for visitors. If a health club or a gay bath house can provide those services, I'd expect the relatively higher class hospital should be able to provide them also.

 

Gman

[seaboy4hire]

And this is why I am one of the worse guests a hospital can have. Although not in the psych ward I made it quite clear to the medical staff so long as I am fully mobile I will attend to myself and do as I please when I had to stay over night at the hospital. The staff were quite happy to see me leave.

 

Hugs,

Greg

 

Edit: Just to clarify I wasn't on the psych floor.

[+ ArVaGuy]

Gman,

 

I'm going to have to take the side of the treatment professionals at the center. The limited hours serve several purpose. You mentioned one already, interrupting treatment sessions. People can't be showing up at their leisure and pull a patient out of a treatment.

 

Oftentimes, these patients lack structure in their lives. Strict visiting hours provide a clear framework and expectations for patients. Further, sometimes it's their families who create or exacerbate the very psychiatric issue these patients are experiencing. The families often require just as much structure as the patients.

 

As for no cellphones or other restrictions, again, the managers of this facility have knowledge and experience that we lay people do not. Lord only knows what issue cellphones or other electronic devices may caused for patients and staff a like. Theft can be a major issue in places like this. I don't blame management one bit for trying to reduce the liability.

 

Psychiatric treatment is very complicated. I don't begin to comprehend the inner workings of treatment center management. I'd be able to live by these restrictions as a visitor without an issue.

[Jim Corrigan]

I worked for 30 yrs as a nurse in a psych hospital.Visitig family members often could get the pts incredibly upset.They also tried to sneak in drugs,ETOH and even guns.It can be a dangerous enviorment.

[rvwnsd]

 

[LADoug1]

I worked for 30 yrs as a nurse in a psych hospital.Visitig family members often could get the pts incredibly upset.They also tried to sneak in drugs,ETOH and even guns.It can be a dangerous enviorment.

ETOH?

[AdamSmith]

ETOH?

Ethyl alcohol: booze.

[+ ArVaGuy]

Ethyl alcohol: booze.

 

As in "drying out."

[+ Gar1eth]

I still say this place was overly strict. My family was not bringing in EtOH, downers, uppers, etc, etc, etc. If a health club can provide a private locker, the better security at a psych hospital can definitely provide it.

 

And don't get me started on how they totally screwed up the management of medical problems in my relative to the point they could have caused his death. When because of dementia he refused some necessary medications, they were 'we can't force him to take them." But when it came to giving their choice of psych medications which the studies had shown were ineffective and possibly harmful for my relative's condition, all of sudden they could force those down.

 

A word to the wise if any of you ever have family in psych hospitals-my experience with this one just confirms a longstanding bias I've had against them-

 

If any of your family get sentenced to one, watch them like a hawk as regards any medical problems your family member enters with. They are crap at taking care of them.

 

Gman

[JayCeeKy]

Many moons ago I worked with mentally ill people in Filthadelphia. I remember one particular client who had a large number of small kids who would call about every three months and tell me that she was going to "hurt herself" and that I needed to call the police and take her to the psychiatric hospital. But... she always insisted that I tell the police to take her to EPPI (Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute) because "the food there is sooo good." One Friday she called me and said that she needed to go to EPPI and had to check-in at least by 3:00 p.m. "because tonight is lobster night and I need to get my order in." For her, the psych hospital was her mini-vacation away from the kids - she knew the kids would not get past the front door and that hubby would be forced to babysit them for a few days. Club Med for her was Club Mad.

[+ FreshFluff]

And don't get me started on how they totally screwed up the management of medical problems in my relative to the point they could have caused his death. When because of dementia he refused some necessary medications, they were 'we can't force him to take them." But when it came to giving their choice of psych medications which the studies had shown were ineffective and possibly harmful for my relative's condition, all of sudden they could force those down.

 

Gman, that sounds really frustrating. Psych hospital staff have a tough job. But it's their responsibility to uphold a certain standard of care, not just subdue the patients.

[+ ArVaGuy]

I still have to disagree with you regarding the restrictions. While your family is not bringing in EtOH, downers, uppers, and the like; others are doing just that bringing in contraband items. How's the facility supposed to screen all those visitors effectively?

 

Oh patient Jones comes from a nice family, they'd never bring contraband. But patient Jenkins, well she's from the wrong side of the tracks, and her brother looks sketchy, plus she doesn't have private insurance. We have to treat them differently.

 

The facility has made up its regulations based on the standard of care they feel is best for the patient. If the restrictions are too stringent to the patient or family's feeling, then move to a less restrictive provider.

 

My 87 year old aunt had to be confined to a psychiatric facility specializing in elderly patients with dementia and other disorders. I won't go into the details of how she wound up there it's a long story. Both funny and tragic at the same time. Suffice that family was not allowed to visit her for the first seven days while she was evaluated and stabilized. We could speak with and meet with the professional staff but isolation was the best for her treatment at the time. She was allowed visitors and phone calls after the second week.

 

It was determined she was a danger to herself and others and could no longer live alone. The psych facility and her primary care team worked with us to find a place she could live the remaining years of her life in safety and comfort. We were able to deal with the restrictions placed by the facility in the initial period in the interest of her needs and not our own. This facility was a lifesaver for my aunt and our family.

 

 

I still say this place was overly strict. My family was not bringing in EtOH, downers, uppers, etc, etc, etc. If a health club can provide a private locker, the better security at a psych hospital can definitely provide it.

 

And don't get me started on how they totally screwed up the management of medical problems in my relative to the point they could have caused his death. When because of dementia he refused some necessary medications, they were 'we can't force him to take them." But when it came to giving their choice of psych medications which the studies had shown were ineffective and possibly harmful for my relative's condition, all of sudden they could force those down.

 

A word to the wise if any of you ever have family in psych hospitals-my experience with this one just confirms a longstanding bias I've had against them-

 

If any of your family get sentenced to one, watch them like a hawk as regards any medical problems your family member enters with. They are crap at taking care of them.

 

Gman

[+ Gar1eth]

I still have to disagree with you regarding the restrictions. While your family is not bringing in EtOH, downers, uppers, and the like; others are doing just that bringing in contraband items. How's the facility supposed to screen all those visitors effectively?

 

Oh patient Jones comes from a nice family, they'd never bring contraband. But patient Jenkins, well she's from the wrong side of the tracks, and her brother looks sketchy, plus she doesn't have private insurance. We have to treat them differently.

 

The facility has made up its regulations based on the standard of care they feel is best for the patient. If the restrictions are too stringent to the patient or family's feeling, then move to a less restrictive provider.

While you make good points. You totally ignore the fact that psychiatry is supposed to be the most individual and non-cooky-cutter of the medical disciplines.

 

While the rules you quote may be good for some patients, it's patently obvious that not all families are dysfunctional. What about the patient who would do better with more family contact? What about the family who if not harming the patient's health need more contact for their own peace of mind. We are not in the days of the Bethlehem Royal Hospital (Bedlam). And I can just about bet that not a lot of continual therapy is going to be going on in a geriatric facility where many of the 'clients' (the supposedly more pc term for patients nowadays as the root word of patient is the Latin for 'to suffer' which is demeaning. ) as it might be in a place with younger patients.

 

 

 

It was determined she was a danger to herself and others and could no longer live alone. The psych facility and her primary care team worked with us to find a place she could live the remaining years of her life in safety and comfort. We were able to deal with the restrictions placed by the facility in the initial period in the interest of her needs and not our own. This facility was a lifesaver for my aunt and our family.

 

So I found out my relative refused the psych meds also. But they got a court order to administer them in spite of his refusal. However, they didn't do the same for his needed non-psych medications. At the end of his stay there he was found to be totally out of it and had to be transferred to a medical facility. He has mild kidney disease to begin with. His creatinine had doubled from dehydration because the psych hospital had not been monitoring-or if monitoring, not doing anything about his fluid intake. He also reportedly had developed a urinary tract infection, and somehow he developed extremely large chest wall hematomas (after having been on blood thinners for years without any similar problems) with a loss of about 2 grams of blood from the bleeding into his chest requiring several blood transfusions.

 

Gman