To wonder why people are sectioned for such short periods

[Awayfortheweekend68]

And then discharged is it due to lack of beds? I just don’t see how people’s mind frames change that quickly.

Beds I suspect. There was an article in the paper earlier about a seriously ill teenager with MH problems and no bed available.
It's ship in ship out.

They don't expect to change people's minds. Someone who was suicidal and very unwell three days ago may have got started on the right treatment and seem well enough to be monitored in the community while the medication starts to work. There are significant risks associated with being in hospital for any length of time, as much as it seems the safest place in some ways (and families need a longer break).

Because once someone is stable on meds (and med compliant) they might not need to be sectioned anymore.

I only know one person who was sectioned, they were in hospital for a month and came out more unwell than they went in. This is obviously not the only outcome and I am not blaming the mental health team, but just wanted to point out that a long hospital stay is not always as beneficial as alternative treatment.

A sectioning strips someone of their human rights. It has to have a high threshold and be open to legal challenge or else we could just use it as a means to control people who acted in ways we didn’t want. There’s a really famous psychology study where participants pretended to be suffering mental illness to get locked up and they found that once in hospital almost everything they did was seen as a symptom of their so called illness and it was next to impossible to get out.

I would imagine they'd like to limit the trauma. Why would sectioning be longer?

www.rethink.org.uk is not only a great place to learn more but really helpful if you are trying to advocate for someone or you suffer from serious mental difficulties

Peoniesandpeaches Do you know what this experiment was called please, im doing an assignment on mental health, detainment and the tribunal process and this could be very interesting and valid. Thanks

It’s a massive deal to hold someone against their will. Huge. It’s imperative that someone is held only for a long as is absolutely necessary and entirely within the law, and not a second longer.

I’m not in the UK. Where I am there are multiple types of ‘section’ including very short term ones to allow for assessment by a psychiatrist or for transfer to a psych hospital by the police. People held longer than that are held under a different part of the legislation and it requires regular review by a tribunal. It’s very important that nobody has unregulated power to lock anyone else up.

@harisonsmum

Peoniesandpeaches Do you know what this experiment was called please, im doing an assignment on mental health, detainment and the tribunal process and this could be very interesting and valid. Thanks

Rosenhan 1973: on being sane in insane places

Brilliant, thank you very much

Part of the problem bed wise is the amount of admissions of ppl with substance abuse issues.
They tend to have longer admissions.

There's no money or staff in mental health despite what promises the govt say.

They closed 2 adult mental health wards in my city about 4 years ago. That leaves 3 acute wards (for ppl under 65 )with 24 beds in each. For a city of around 230 000.

It means sometimes ppl with depression can be very unwell and are kept in the community.

There needs to be specialist wards/places for ppl with substance abuse being their major problem. Obviously they can have mental health issues too.

peonies
It is true. I was sectioned for acute drug induced psychosis. I was fine within 72 hours, I literally took too many drugs and didn't sleep for 3 days and went totally loopy.

Anyway I was stuck there on a section 2 (30 day). They thought I had schizophrenia. Once I sobered up and slept for a couple of days I was completely fine, but they didn't believe me. Apparently denial of schizophrenia is a symptom of schizophrenia. After a week of being trapped there with no hope in sight of leaving - I was advised by the other inpatients best to pretend your going insane again for another 10 days or so and get gradually better whilst praising the wonders of modern medicine in hope of a release. Thankfully it worked. Absolute hell hole. Never felt so unsafe in my life in there. Some very unwell people in there. It is not a 'healing' environment and would be 'triggering' to a sane person.

If they have EUPD a 3-day admission is recommended as longer is thought to be detrimental to them.

Other reasons are the patient is desperate to go home and has a supportive family and accepts community follow up.

The current bed shortage is shocking and no one realises because its not publicised. Beds were cut due to COVID social distancing on wards and COVID related staff shortage.

Situations like 3 very ill people fighting for 1 open bed NATIONALLY nevermind locally

And yet its not in the press because as usual MH comes last.

Ime smetimes people are admitted over night at the weekend etc when there is only on-call staff and might be detained under a section 5/2 once they are seen by their own team , hospital admission ,maynot be felt to be in their best interests ,I know the state of mental health is shocking at the moment but when I qualified as as a mental health nurse in the 90,s some psychiatrist,s would keep patients in hospital for far longer than was necessary and that wasent in the their best interests either .

I was sectioned in November for ongoing m/h issues including a psychotic disorder. I was out in 2 weeks, but mainly because I agreed to crisis support in the community. I was meant to be in for a minimum of 4 weeks.
A psychiatric hospital is not a nice place to be and I can fully understand how people come out worse than they go in.
For a start, my anorexia worsened as no one was monitoring my meals (and I was pouring my supplement drinks away). They just didn't have the time/resources.

I work on a mental health ward and have got to say very few people are there for just a week. Those that are, are usually deemed to be better off with their families and support systems, or like a couple of others have said have been sectioned due to drug psychosis.
Our average stay is a month. Much longer than that and it is detrimental. They are noisy , disruptive places and really not the right place for people suffering from some disorders and can make them worse.

We may be stretched, but as staff , we try our best.

It depends on several things. The patient's disorder, treatment, support network etc. Sectioning is used as a very last resort as it strips someone of their rights.
I have been sectioned, and also been an informal patient. My longest stay was as an informal patient.

Inpatient mental health nurse here. Honestly, there are 2 usual answers to your question:

1. Sometimes people who get sectioned are in a 'crisis' and not engaging with their community services, and after a few days, whilst not 'well' will agree to be treated in the community instead so are discharged to do so.
2. The pressure on beds at the moment is horrendous. As soon as someone is deemed 'stable' we're under pressure to get them out again. Often we know it's too soon for them to be discharged and they are likely to relapse quickly but when you have 5 even more unwell people all waiting for their bed you have to prioritise admitting someone else instead. CAMHS services in particular are in meltdown. It's not uncommon for minors now to have to be admitted to beds miles and miles from home, and I've even recently heard of a child being admitted to an adult ward as there was nowhere else for them to go which I've never seen before in nearly 12 years of inpatient mental health nursing.

@KitKat1985

Inpatient mental health nurse here. Honestly, there are 2 usual answers to your question: 1) Sometimes people who get sectioned are in a 'crisis' and not engaging with their community services, and after a few days, whilst not 'well' will agree to be treated in the community instead so are discharged to do so. 2) The pressure on beds at the moment is horrendous. As soon as someone is deemed 'stable' we're under pressure to get them out again. Often we know it's too soon for them to be discharged and they are likely to relapse quickly but when you have 5 even more unwell people all waiting for their bed you have to prioritise admitting someone else instead. CAMHS services in particular are in meltdown. It's not uncommon for minors now to have to be admitted to beds miles and miles from home, and I've even recently heard of a child being admitted to an adult ward as there was nowhere else for them to go which I've never seen before in nearly 12 years of inpatient mental health nursing.

How old was the child? I have known 15/16 year olds being admitted to the PICU I used to work on,but this was probably 15 + years ago , certainly not ideal

x2boys: the child was 15 (but looked younger).

15 that’s shocking I’ve heard of 17 year olds being admitted to adults wards but that’s a bit more understandable

I’m also wondering about section 136 which by its very nature is a short section to enable a more complete assessment to take place so whilst someone is sectioned it does not mean they will end up on a more long term section such as a two as they may agree to informal admission or working with say the crisis team etc

I think also what we need to consider is that in any population there is always a percentage of mentally ill people requiring around the clock care. Alcohol and drug abuse also falls under this umbrella term. Up until the 1940’s & 50’s (Post War) there were quite a “sanitariums” and “Rest Homes” built to cater to the part of our population who were still too mentally unwell to be returned home, but not considered acute enough to require hospitalization. Those places have disappeared (and been turned into bloody housing developments), and despite our population exploding everywhere, they have not been replaced. Now we have a much higher incidence of readmission, re-sectioning and homelessness.