Experiences of mental health section / inpatient treatment

[OnePercentLover]

I’ve name changed for this thread.

My DS is potentially going to be accepted as a mental health patient or be sectioned tomorrow / soon.

I just wanted to understand what this experience might be like for him. Are patients allowed their phones, talk to their friends?

I can’t imagine him accepting the situation without being able to take his Xbox with him!

Any advice/ experience would be much appreciated.

Yea they can take their phones with them and use them as they wish. He won’t be allowed an Xbox though. Anything he could harm himself will be taken from him.
My dd has been sectioned twice, I’ll be honest it’s not a nice place to be and made my dd worse as she learned more dangerous behaviours in there.

Is he being admitted under CAMHS or adult inpatient? Is he aware there is a planned admission?Will this be his first inpatient admission?

on admission a nurse will read him his rights and orientation to ward
Be told about ward round, tribunal etc
Staff will talk you through what to expect eg ward round, named worker, no leave initially until he’s more settled

May need to be medicated on admission to manage mental state and any agitation.

He will keep phone , not Xbox ,no.
Give him some money for snacks when staff go to shops. Not too much though

Depending on risk (self harm, absconding, mental state) he will be on general observations or if high risk he will be on close observation

He will be oriented to the ward, told the rules and expectations eg leave, smoking,meal times ,introduced to staff. Told about therapy programme

wards will have rules regarding leave,substances etc

wards can be noisy and a bit disorienting. He will get own single occupancy room

Hi, I’ve been sectioned several times. You can have your mobile but you’ll need to get him a short charger as the longer ones could be used inappropriately so they remove them.
It’s a bit of a holding pen, you see a psychiatrist once a week but otherwise there isnt much else that happens.
There should be a room with a tv he can watch and one I’ve been in had a dvd room.
Food is generally pretty rank so take him snacks and nice drinks but nothing in glass or cans.
He will need a roll on deodorant. Aerosols aren’t allowed.
Happy to answer questions.

I can’t imagine him accepting the situation without being able to take his Xbox with him!

That's not going to be up to him.

Sending you strength OP. Seeing him taken away in a caged vehicle will be hard, but it's for his own safety.

I have never been on a MH unit with a therapy programme. Not once. And I've been in more than a few.

Agreed. Never had therapy.

Caged vehicle? No not necessarily. Depends on what transportation has been requested by AMHP

To be honest OP, if you have the capacity to do so, you need to be on the facility/ psych/ nurses like flies on crap.

The services are so hideously under resourced and pretty poor so to think they're doing the absolute best is wrong.

The point in him being there is going to be to try medication out. You need to advocate if you can. Side effects can be hideous, they downplay all this stuff. You want assurances that the absolute lowest dose will be started, they need tell you mg levels. What will they try alongside this? For example, I had diazepam to help me adjust to an ssri medication years ago.

I've been in hospital with physical illness many times and have observed so much. I haven't been an in patient like this.

If DS is Neurodivergent or suspected ND; what will they do to assess for that? CBT is not usually helpful for most people, especially ND people.

What long term therapy options are there for him? Can you research and source this yourself? The NHS is the absolute pits I'm sorry to say.

You might need respite and can't do this which is understandable.

Occupational therapy
art therapy
music therapy

They do activities, can order food and deliveries. Some have gyms, they can cook, art classes.

I agree with this. By far the most valuable thing an inpatient can have, is loved ones assertively advocating for them. Please do make sure any side effects your son may have from medication are taken seriously. Make sure all his concerns are being listened to by staff, and make sure you're kept up to date with any medical decisions.

My sister has been sectioned a few times and unfortunately the experience seems to have been similar to what a few PP described.

Basically drugged quite heavily and otherwise pretty much left to own devices a lot of the time. I was shocked when I found out that they don't offer any sort of therapy - I thought that would be a staple of admission.

It really does seem that the sole purpose is to stop patients from hurting themselves. Though that didn't stop them preventing her from escaping on one occasion.

Sorry, OP. Hope you are doing okay.

Commence medication to manage symptoms and alleviate distress

It really varies from hospital to hospital. Probably the less good options are a MH ward at a general hospital. The best are specialist MH hospitals. Bethlem and Maudsley are brilliant, for example.

He shouldn't take anything that could be dangerous to him or others, eg the long charger cord mentioned, or anything valuable.

Never had any of those in a public hospital, only private.

I was in one hospital where you weren’t allowed to have your phone. There was a pay phone in the hallway.

The rules and facilities vary widely.

This is about as different an experience as you could get from the ones I’ve had.

NHS Acute wards, camhs,perinatal will have an OT and an activity programme

Lots of fabulous advice on here already @OnePercentLover. massive squishes

my sounds been sectioned pretty much for the last 3 years now (he’s an extreme case though and not the norm at all!!) and I’ve found POPS UK group on Facebook extremely helpful for advice and support in person and online with it all. Worth checking out.

Ive not had therapy and I’ve been in private and nhs hospitals.

Yes that’s right

I wish. Though come to think of it, at one hospital someone brought in a tortoise for us to stroke with a paintbrush for some unknown reason. That was a one off

I assure you that they didn't at the five acute wards I was in.

The last time I was in hospital the ward did have a therapy program to be fair, but unfortunately the high spot was colouring in, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, between 10.15 and 11.15 am.

I was an informal patient. Nearly everyone on my unit bar a couple were allowed their phone although chargers were handed in and we had to ask to use them. Keeping in touch with friends and family was encouraged and people could visit me in visitor rooms or off site when I was allowed out. However, there was an initial assessment period, 3 days in my case, where I had to stay on the ward and wasn't allowed visitors. I don't think an xbox will be allowed, I'd encourage your son to take a book he might like, or a puzzle book or if he enjoys colouring or art. In my case there was a TV lounge and some activities (eg art, gentle exercise, film night etc) but the days are quite long. In contrast to some others on the thread, I found my admission to be positive, it allowed me to transition between medicines in a safe environment, and got me back on a more even keel. I wouldn't be frightened or distressed if I had to have another admission (although I hope I remain well and don't need it). I hope things go well for your son.

Ah yes... that side room with broken crayons and blunt pencils with some mostly- used colouring books on a table... don't remember anyone ever being in there though.