To think a person being in a mental health unit for six weeks

[Cuttherubbish]

Is quite lengthy admission

@NC276

OP is the person your DP? It might be easier to include all the information in one post. You'll get more advice that way. I do hope you're okay though.

Yes it is according to their other post.

Yes he is my dp sorry I should have said

Nope. Not lengthy at all.

Context

Some people stay in them for years at a time. 6 weeks is not much at all, and if they need longer then it will be reviewed. Or they may be out before. It all depends on how they are responding to treatment.

You must feel like you have gone through the wringer your poor husband

If he's there it's because the drs believe he should be there.

It's not a hotel. You don't book in for a holiday.

Sorry everyone is jumping on you OP. I hope your DP can start to engage with the support of the unit.

Do you disbelieve him OP? It's really difficult to say if 6 weeks is lengthly or not. It's a how long is a piece of string type thing. Also, in answer to other question, I think it depends on availability at the mental health unit. You could be in the local area, or out of it. The first time my family member was sectioned she was in a unit a few hours drive away but the second time it was within her town.

I was sectioned but was only in 10 days it wasn’t the right place for me to recover I had intensive care in the home as that’s what was right for me.
Sorry you are going through this OP he should be taking it seriously but 6 weeks could be enough to stabilise him by if he’s not taking his recovery properly the chance of a relapse is high

Listening to everyone's experiences has reminded me how suspicious I was that my ex mil was "having a breakdown" in hospital for less than a week at the time I felt guilty for thinking my ex was using this as yet another excuse to not see his children I berated myself for thinking so badly (in my defence he is a cunt)

I might have been right judging by everyone's experiences on this thread 🤔

I've had a few 1 week to 10 days admissions following a 72 hour section. But short stays like that seem unusual.

@Theunamedcat

Listening to everyone's experiences has reminded me how suspicious I was that my ex mil was "having a breakdown" in hospital for less than a week at the time I felt guilty for thinking my ex was using this as yet another excuse to not see his children I berated myself for thinking so badly (in my defence he is a cunt)

I might have been right judging by everyone's experiences on this thread 🤔

Some people do indeed only spend a week as inpatient. I was admitted on a 3 day crisis admission.

@Cuttherubbish

Is quite lengthy admission

Compared to what? Sometimes people will be admitted for 24 hours, sometimes stay for months. It depends on lots of different factors (are they a danger to themselves or others? What is the support like at home? Are they stable? Do they need to try medications or other support before leaving?).

@Theunamedcat

Listening to everyone's experiences has reminded me how suspicious I was that my ex mil was "having a breakdown" in hospital for less than a week at the time I felt guilty for thinking my ex was using this as yet another excuse to not see his children I berated myself for thinking so badly (in my defence he is a cunt)

I might have been right judging by everyone's experiences on this thread 🤔

I don't think you can infer that. People go in for shorter times, too.

Honestly, context really does matter; 6 weeks is a long recuperation for some.

But as a couple, your recuperation as a couple might be lots longer.

Really depends on whether he responds to treatment and has protective influences in his life... it’s all totally dependent on the situation and the risk

It's quite a long time if that was a first admission. The threshold to be admitted is pretty high as they usually like to keep people out of hospital so they don't admit anyone who isn't seriously unwell. Beds are so limited they're usually keen to move people on who don't need to be there.

I hope he and you are ok.

Depends where he is but acute psych wards are often little more than ‘holding pens’, in my experience. Not much, if anything, is done in the way of therapy; meds might be looked at, maybe some chats to figure out what community care needs to be set up. That does mean you can end up in a catch 22 where you’re not safe to discharge but cannot recover until you’re discharged.

My longest stay has been 6 weeks and I left sicker than I went in. The team did though, in that time, find me some good community support that enabled me to then start recovering. However, it was frankly very dicey few weeks when I first came home. The reason I was discharged was because I had started to become even more unsafe to myself in hospital than out so hospital was no longer serving any purpose.

All this is a very long way to say that it is far from simple and depends entirely on his condition and what they’re doing. Some people are in for months, others for 24 hours. Effort by the patient is rarely the main deciding factor...

I think it depends how it is viewed as some will see any stage beyond a few hours/overnight as lengthy but some will see weeks as short stay compared to years as long stay. The important thing is responding to the treatment and being well enough to leave and be well outside of the treatment centre.

I've worked in MH units. We had patients there from 2days respite all the way up to 50+years. :(

Not really. 6 weeks is a minimum really to make any progress or get any real help. 6 months is fairly normal and not "very lengthy". People have short stays due to lack of resources, not lack of need.

It can also be impossible when so unwell to grasp the severity of your situation or to accept what recovery will involve. The realisation tends to come either as you improve a little, so become more aware of reality, or else when you hit true rock bottom.

Are you able to be present at his meetings with psychiatrist and rest of team, or else speak to them on phone? Having everyone involved with your care on the same page helps a lot, in my opinion. If you’re relying on him to relay all the info, you’ll only be getting a certain angle on it. It’s also important to have someone advocating for him - I noticed staff tended to disengage with longer/stay or ‘revolving door’ patients and just let the patient languish, which was really sad.

Doesn't sound long to me if people are having assessments and a multi agency approach to diagnosing the issues and improving their health.