Jennifer C. on Insider Pages 8 years ago
04/04/2013, 05:47 AM
HELL ON EARTH
Never, ever, ever, ever go to this hospital. I have yet to hear a single good thing about it. Most of the problems I have heard are out of the adolescent unit. I was deluded and thought that surely the psychiatrists who see adults are more rational. The problem is that it is not solely the psychologists who must be rational.
When our insurance changed, my husband, who had for many years been taking medicine for panic attacks and anxiety, was in need of a new psychologists to prescribe this. After a particularly bad week of panic attacks, we went to our primary care physicians office to request a referral. They said that the fastest way to get him his anti-anxiety medication that day was to go to an outpatient psychologist at one of the local mental health hospitals. We randomly chose Two Rivers because it was closest to me. Mistake #1: Get a referral based on something other than proximity.
We asked to be assessed for an out-patient psychologist. In spite of repeatedly stating that we were only interested in out-patient treatment, we were there for over an hour before they admitted that they dont do out-patient treatment. By that time we were behind a locked door. During that hour, they had lied to us repeatedly on numerous points. Mistake #2: Dont let them take you behind a locked door to talk to you and dont trust anything they say to get you there. Once you are behind a locked door, YOU CANNOT LEAVE. It doesnt matter how old, how sane, how calm you are you are giving up the right to leave on your own terms if you walk behind their locked door.
My husband made a flippant remark about how his anxiety about going to work was making him want to drive off a bridge on the way there. Mistake #3: Their staff is unable to discern hyperbole from actual threat. They decided to involuntarily commit him. They could not be convinced that he was not a threat to anyone, including himself, even though he was perfectly rational.
The bottom line is that my husband found himself locked up when we declined in-patient help and said wed go home and make an appointment with a local psychologist. Were they really concerned about him? Or about money walking out the door?