Reflections On A Mental Health Ward

It has been a while since I gave reflections on a mental health ward admission.   As I said the last time, one never gets used to being admitted.  Well for me, I never did.  My very first experience had knocked me for six!

By my final admission to a mental health ward,  I had in the later days understood the ward was both a home for those on admission and a workplace for the carers.

By the second week of admission I was strong enough for supervised walks on the grounds of the hospital.  Visits for patients, I observed, were determined by the state of mind of each patient. A quiet environment was encouraged in the ward.

 There were specific times that food was brought for the patients.  Those patients that missed the food times were usually asleep.  I got a sense of when food was being brought in even though there was no announcements or nurses coming to check whether you were going to eat. The early days in the ward I had no recollection of eating however. Gradually the daily routine got better established and I hardly missed meals.

Daily activities and routine were established with each patient juggling with the schedules that had been developed by others.  The facilities were communal and a sign of patients getting better were when they started receiving visitors. Longer visits often preceded discharge from the ward.

Years later when I went to visit a friend who was sectioned,  I got to understand the sensitivities surrounding mental health ward admissions.  

The decision on letting us see the patient was reversed while we were in the reception. Being he was resting, the nurses made a decision that it was not in our best interest to visit.

Zoe was later to say that the visit to the mental hospital  was akin to a prison visit with all the checks and  secured locked entries.

Have you had any experience of working in or visiting a mental health ward? Please share…

About The Author

Chuck

It all started with Eze (fondly called Chuck) fainting at the airport. When he regained consciousness, Chuck found himself in a mental hospital. He was diagnosed with Psychotic Depression. Over time, Chuck was diagnosed with a range of other mental illnesses with the final one being Schizophrenia. Unbeknown to him about this latest record on his medical files, Chuck carried on with day to day living over the next 14 years until he met Zoe. Over the next 4 years, Chuck and Zoe began a journey of faith to defy the odds of mental illness. Today Chuck’s medical records say NO MENTAL ILLNESS. He defied mental illness and is helping others do the same.

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