Can confirm. I had a bad reaction to some new meds and tried to kill myself twice in one week. The second time I even fought with the cops. First I was sent to the er then to an all purpose rehab/loony bin until I was cleared for release.
Spot on with the heavy furniture you can’t easily lift. You also needed a doctor’s recommendation to shave and they watched you like a hawk with that razor.
There was also groups where the helped with coping skills and talked about problems. It wasn’t a fun place to be but they were trying to help.
Yeah group activities were one of the better ways of dealing with boredom and passing the time. I feel like the coping skills provided were overly generic, but that’s to be expected when dealing with such a wide variety of people and issues.
The staff were absolutely always trying to do their best, there just weren’t enough of them. At both facilities I went to, the ratio was around 1:10 or worse (as in 10+ patients for every staff member).
Ah yes, the phone that is out in the open so everyone gets to hear your side of the conversation.
I’m glad to hear that you’ve been doing better since then, and I hope your sister is doing well. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to work in a place like that.
On a sadder note I remover just walking laps around the area when I was bored and thinking about the animals in zoos that just pace back and forth because they’re cage is too small with nothing to do… so you just walk around…
Yeah pretty much. I would also write out nerdy things like the ASCII table, or do the math to figure out how many seconds I had been at the facility, and stuff like that. Of course using paper they provided and those damn bendy pens.
Can confirm. I had a bad reaction to some new meds and tried to kill myself twice in one week. The second time I even fought with the cops. First I was sent to the er then to an all purpose rehab/loony bin until I was cleared for release.
Spot on with the heavy furniture you can’t easily lift. You also needed a doctor’s recommendation to shave and they watched you like a hawk with that razor.
There was also groups where the helped with coping skills and talked about problems. It wasn’t a fun place to be but they were trying to help.
Yeah group activities were one of the better ways of dealing with boredom and passing the time. I feel like the coping skills provided were overly generic, but that’s to be expected when dealing with such a wide variety of people and issues.
The staff were absolutely always trying to do their best, there just weren’t enough of them. At both facilities I went to, the ratio was around 1:10 or worse (as in 10+ patients for every staff member).
Exactly. I got to see it from both sides because my sister is a nurse for a facility like I was in as well.
I’d talk to her a lot on the phone. You know the phone with the super short cord you couldn’t hang yourself with lol
Ah yes, the phone that is out in the open so everyone gets to hear your side of the conversation.
I’m glad to hear that you’ve been doing better since then, and I hope your sister is doing well. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to work in a place like that.
On a sadder note I remover just walking laps around the area when I was bored and thinking about the animals in zoos that just pace back and forth because they’re cage is too small with nothing to do… so you just walk around…
Yeah pretty much. I would also write out nerdy things like the ASCII table, or do the math to figure out how many seconds I had been at the facility, and stuff like that. Of course using paper they provided and those damn bendy pens.