Reply to I work on a psych ward...ask me anything

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Do most people there get visits from family members?[/quote]

[quote]For kids and adolescents - yes I would say most, although sadly not all. For adults, probably half. Some don't want visitors, others would love visitors but no one comes.[/quote]

I had to check my six year old into the psych ward.  It was the absolute hardest thing I had to do.  He was diagnosed with pediatric onset bipolar disorder and was recieving out patient care.  He has been in therapy since he was three but he didn't have a diagnosis until he was five.

It took me an hour or more every day, each way, in rush hour, to go and see him.  What made it more difficult was that I could only see him for an hour a day.  It was a heartbreaking experience.

My son was lucky though.  He had visitors every day. There was a day I couldn't make it and his aunt went to see him.  I logged in and I saw that my boy was the only one that had visitors. It was four days before there was someone else on the log in because they were taking a child out.  I saw one boy call his mom, call times are very restricted, and she said she couldn't talk to him.  The poor boy was so upset that he puked.

Thanks OP.  Today another child learned of my son's diagnoses and picked on him and called him crazy.  This has all been on my mind all day and I was thinking of how well DS is doing since he spent 8 days in the "stress clinic".[/quote]

Sorry about the rough day, but glad to hear he is doing better. That is a very different model than the child / adolescent unit I worked on. We had a 24 hour open visitation policy and parents could stay 24 hrs if they wanted. Phone calls were 8:30-8:30. Often parents stayed the first night. We did encourage parents not to stay full time as we need time to assess the child without parents around and we want the child to benefit from the therapeutic aspects of the program however if a parent insisted on staying, they were welcome to. We had bed chairs for parents in every room. We were a very family focused unit and parents were part of the team so we expected them to be very involved. Kids often also had extended family, friends, teachers, pastors, community counselors etc visit.

I worked briefly on a unit that was very restrictive in terms of calls/visits but I didn't like that approach at all. [/quote]

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