I had a similar experience while visiting a friend in an inpatient unit.....
I thought then that the place was a dying remnant of an old system, and an old consciousness. Our mental health system was surely moving in the direction of creating treatment environments and models that would actually help vulnerable patients stabilize, recover, and heal.
Many years have gone by since then during which I had no further involvement with the inpatient psychiatric hospital system. But recently, a close relative of mine suffered a psychotic episode that landed her in the locked unit of a Midwestern private psychiatric hospital. I therefore had a chance, through visits to the hospital and through conversations with her, other visitors, and some of the staff, to revisit the inpatient hospital environment.
It was a shocking and disturbing experience. In fundamental ways, nothing has changed. In fact, in some ways, things appear to have gotten worse.
My relative, I’ll call her Claire, was brought to the hospital from the emergency room after she had a scary hallucination earlier in the day following a period of intense stress and anxiety. After she was admitted, she was examined (apparently to make a record of any marks on her body to ensure the hospital couldn’t be blamed for existing bruises) and then left in her room. She did not receive any orientation, was not told where the nurses were, and was not given a schedule, a welcome pack, or information on the rules, whom to talk to—nothing. Neither Claire nor her family received instructions about the hospital’s discharge procedures. She wasn’t told when she would see a doctor, nor was she given any medication (until she asked for some), or any other advice or assistance.
The next day, Claire later told me, was mostly spent waiting, with not much to do except watch junk TV, play cards, or lie in bed. There was one TV set receiving few stations, a few puzzles, Pictionary, two decks of cards, and four books on the unit. The nursing staff mostly stayed in their office and interacted little with the patients. A few rudimentary group sessions run by Techs were offered, including a group “art therapy” session, which consisted of being offered coloring books to fill in. For reasons that were not explained to her (or her family), Claire was placed in the Dual Diagnosis unit for addicts even though she is not a substance user.