A family member of mine suffers with sever bipolar disorder and she had to spend some time in a mental hospital in order to gain control of her emotions again. When she came back she told me how horrific she was treated. In the facility they gave the patients paper thin scrubs that made them feel inhuman, they were not spoken to like adults or humans for that matter, and they were constantly treated like they were crazy. She told me that no one would even tell her where she had to go for things, luckily there was another woman there that guided her but the people who ran the facility would not talk to them. Most often then not people who go into psychiatric facilities are worse off because of the way they are treated in their care. Part of why I want to because a psychologist is that I want to open my own facility where the patients are treated with intentional care and kindness. I think making people who need help feel crazy is very inhumane. When mental health was just starting to get treated many years ago the patients were treated like science experiments and unfortunately the conditions that these people have to endure are not much better. I want to change the way people think about psychiatric facilities and I want to make it a place that people feel like they can genuinely get help from instead of feeling terrified to admit that they need any sort of health at the risk of being taken to somewhere that would only theoretically make them worse off. Some people have described that they experience that they had when they were in a psych ward was worse than the mental illness itself ever was. I think that patients also need to be wearing clothes that they feel comfortable in instead of slapping some paper in the shape of scrubs on them and calling it a day. I cannot even imagine how hopeless and inhumane people feel when all they are trying to do is get help.
This truly is an issue within the healthcare system that needs more attention brought to it. I have heard numerous stories very similar to your family members and find them to be outrageous. People go to these facilities to get help and in return for this brave step in the healing journey, they are treated horribly. It’s outright disgusting. I love that you care about this topic so much and I think it is amazing that you want to open up a facility that truly cares for its patients!!!
Your family member’s story is so sad to hear. I am in full support of your goal of opening your own psychiatric care facility. I think your goals are very considerate and would end up helping so many people who would get mistreated somewhere else.
We have similar goals and perspectives on this. It is truly upsetting how the healthcare system lacks care for its patients. I’ve heard many stories and had experiences from close friends when they had to be in the hospital and they were given lack of care. You are strong for bringing this up and opening up about it.