Not Coping

Every hospital is going to be different @Birdofparadise8 and every admission is going to be different because every body is different and they have different needs. I’ve had all sorts of lengths of stays in the public system.

Last year when I was in hospital once, I knew of one lady who had been there close to a year. I’ve gone in there and seen people in there and then have ended up back in there a couple of weeks later and the same people have been in there.

We had a new hospital open here last year and there were a heap of mental health wards as part of the new development. There is an adolescent, young adult, senior, open ward, there is a mental health rehab ward and a mental health ICU. There is also a short stay unit.

I will say though, make sure you make it very clear that you are just wanting a short stay reset/circuit breaker. My admission before my current one, I asked my team to admit me, to make that decision for me, but that I would go willingly and that I just wanted a circuit breaker short stay for a week. I went in voluntarily, I did all the right things, I ate every meal, took all my meds, but when it came to the end of the week and I told the psych registrar that I wanted to go home, he said no, he scheduled me and caused a lot of dramas.

Yeah that’s what I am worried about I don’t want to go in voluntarily and then be told I can’t leave. I have work and other commitments that I need to go to as well.

Thank you for that though @Bow

It’s always the concern eh @Birdofparadise8 with anything to do with our mental health…. Someone can step in at anytime and take control and dictate what is best for us

If that was the case I would get my parent and a lawyer involved @Bow.

Can I ask how why that was the case and was it hard to resolve?

With my last admission? And the registrar not letting me go home?

Yeah that’s what I meant @Bow

Sorry if I take a while to reply I’m at work but I finish in like 20 min.

Sure, well there was some miscommunication to start with. The registrar was under the impression that I had agreed to have ECT, which was incorrect. So part of the reason that he wouldn’t let me go was cause of that.

I then called my case manager. The registrar had said that he had spoken to people in the community who had said that it wasn’t safe for me to go home. So I wanted to know who he had spoken to. It wasn’t my case manager. I never did find out who he had spoken to. But my case manager and my pdoc supported me going home.

I then demanded to speak with a psychiatrist in person, not just a registrar and not just a registrar who was relaying information to a psychiatrist over the phone (up until this point I hadn’t even met the psychiatrist I had been admitted under, only the registrar and he was relaying information to the psychiatrist over the phone. The psychiatrist had made the decision to schedule me and not let me go home without even meeting me).

I spoke with a nurse and the num and demanded to see a psychiatrist in person. Which was organisation and I explained everything that had happened. Cleared up the fact that I was not in there to have ECT, that I had agreed to come in for a short admission circuit breaker, that I had complied with everything while in there and that I now wanted to go home. She agreed and let me go.

sorry that was so long! But that’s what happened. I was a bit proud of myself for standing up for myself.

Good on you for being able to do that @Bow

I just that’s the thing with being in a public hospital they have the registrar do all the work and then tell the psychiatrist,

That must be annoying you never found out who told the doctor your weren’t safe home.

It’s good you have a psychiatrist and case manager on your side.

Can I ask how long you stayed because my aunt thinks if I go public it’s only a night or two just to keep my safe.

What are your plans for today?

@Birdofparadise8 That admission was Monday - Friday. I’m really not sure where your aunt gets the idea that they are only for a couple of days?

I think she is assuming that you go in for a few days to stay safe.

For me that’s a part of it, but I also want to get my medication looked and just some general support as I can’t see my psychiatrist at the uni for six weeks and with how everything has gone done hill so fast in just the past four I need that assessment and just by going into hospital for a week or something might help reset all that.

I think if I go public I’ll call psych triage and ask them what they think and if it’s a good idea and what a stay is like @Bow