Posted by yxibow on September 20, 2008, at 23:29:47
In reply to Re: i'm not well i hate everything here in the hospita » yxibow, posted by ricker on September 20, 2008, at 19:23:38
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> > Yes -- actually a psychiatric hospital is not the best place I must say for anything but single-task focused or emergency care. It is better to be at home with any family members you can contact and integrate yourself as much as you can socially and with the community -- isolation is not conducive to the "recovery model".
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> Jay, That's an interesting take on psych units. I was hopitalized twice in the late 80's. My experience was quite positive. My occupation at the time was a process operator in an oil/gas refinery and involved shiftwork.
> When I entered hospital, it was like all the outside stressors were removed. I was being treated for major depression and anxiety. Yes, it did take some time to adjust to the new environment, but I found the staff very understanding. Once my mood became more stable, activity programs, conselling and other programs were introduced. Many people need just that, a break from their family and outside socialization.
And that can be different -- I'm not saying its an absolute, maybe some families are stressors to illness for lack of understanding or a dozen other reasons.But then there is the alternative of relying on your peers. And that is what I meant, I guess I was projecting -- I have basically very few to no friends, they've become acquaintances because they've moved on in life and are very busy with their jobs.
It makes me happy to still see them, any human contact, but that is like maybe three times a year at best. I hope that changes but its hard to find new friends when you've built them up over 15 years.
Anyway I'm straying from the topic.
> Maybe I was fortunate in that the hospital was the exeption, rather than the norm? I believe most public hospitals here in Canada would operate in the same manner?I would imagine -- I would imagine it also varies by province how much they manage Medicaire, which we don't have the safety gap that Canada put in in the 1960s when many social movements were having.
Now I'm really straying from the topic, but I believe in some universal health care for especially those who fall through the net here - states here typically have caps of like $50,000 if you're lucky enough to enroll in their health programs for the needy/poor/low income, which can take a loooong time to happen.
There really aren't concepts of state mental hospitals (which were certainly not the best places to be), but basically they were "emptied out" and shut down, if I can be as little as crass as possible, between the 1970s and 1990 or so and a plentiful lot of patients who survived migrated to cities in the US that were more tolerant of... well basically homeless people.
A number of homeless people are the "walking wounded" and are picked up by the police for drunken behaviour or whatever and are dumped back on the street. I'm not saying this is an absolute either -- anyway this is a controversial topic.
So, to say psychiatric wards that are part of modern hospitals are on par with Canadian standards is to say, well, which ones in Canada are like which ones in the US or any "western" country.
Those who are associated with "teaching hospitals", academia, universities, tend to be better places.
Those that aren't, or don't have the funding, may be a place where patients suffer from a lack of staff to care for them and a place of isolation and boredom and possibly older methods of psychiatry and stagnation.
But the difference, and I don't know how much Medicaire pays in Canada for long term mental health care and even short term, is that in general, most all health insurance if you are lucky to have it, contract out to "behavioural health services" such as UBH what is deemed to fall under the mental health care part of the policy.
The "Mental Health Care Parity" bill if I recall if it even passed, has so many loopholes that these contracting agencies, for example, your regular health insurance may have a lifetime cap of $1-$6+ million, which even with rising health care is not alot, but it saves you from crisis care, e.g. awful accidents, etc.
But the other side, the mental health care, even with HIPAA, has a pitiful of $100,000 which would put you out on the street in no time, and using it for your psychiatrist just for regular care, not trying to scare everyone, but the bean counters can say -- depression, prior existing condition, and you can be without health care, in some extreme nasty contentious fight with your insurance.> Anyway, I hope you continue to improve Jereon.
I wish the same
-- tidingsJay
poster:yxibow
thread:851970
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080915/msgs/853190.html