Posted by ed_uk on December 23, 2004, at 10:09:36
In reply to Re: Locked Up » ed_uk, posted by tensor on December 23, 2004, at 9:36:35
Hi Mattias,
Being in hospital was extremely boring! There wasn't anything to do and the staff weren't that friendly. Most people spent all day in the smoking room or watching TV. There was a lot of incontinent people who kept peeing on the seats. Basically, it was depressing. We saw our pdocs once a week at the most. It might be different at a better hospital though, I'd imagine that the hospitals in Scandinavia are better! Also, the food was VERY greasy!
The medication that people are given in hospital is often the same as what they would be given if they were at home. Some things might be different though, for example, doses might be increased more rapidly in hospital. When we went for our tablets the nurses watched us take them and looked in our mouth afterwards. A lot of people still managed to retrieve their Haldol afterwards though!
I wasn't given any sedatives in hospital. Severely agitated patients are sometimes injected with lorazepam + haloperidol. They won't sedate you unless there is no other option ie. you're running around screaming.
Aggressive, noisy patients were sometimes put in the isolation room (basically an empty cupboard about the size of a walk-in wardrobe). All the nurses had personal attack alarms which they carried around on strings. They were always setting them off.... 'false alarms.' The nurses didn't wear any uniform, it was sometimes impossible to tell the difference between the staff and the patients. The ward I was on wasn't locked. About half the patients were voluntary. There was also a high security locked ward.
A few people were having ECT- they didn't have a clue what was going on!
I remember people staying up all night and then asking for their sleeping pills during the day!
Everyone got a 'level' which specified how often they had to be checked on. The higher the risk of self harm, the more frequent the checks. eg. continuous supervision, every 10mins, every 30mins, every hour etc.
Ed.
poster:ed_uk
thread:433249
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041223/msgs/433303.html