Hospital Admissions and Early Discharges

[MJG017]

@Oaktree  While i've had plenty of experience with hospitals recently, it hasn't been for my mental health.  When I visited my sister in Canberra a couple of years ago, she talked about the really bad panic attacks she gets and how frustrating it is because she'll go to the hospital and they'll just tell her to go home.

The whole system seems to be broken and so many people are just left to go to emergency departments because they can't get in to see a GP either because they can't get an appointment for a week or it's after hours.  They're starting to do more after hours services around here, but it's just a drop in the bucket.  Half the GP appointments I go to are just pointless.  To get paperwork filled out for the govt or referrals, or to get scripts.  So I can only assume lots of other people are taking up GP time with this stuff that could easily be avoided.  So as a result the ED's are slammed and if you're not seen as a high priority then it's out you go.

I remember when I had my surgery in December 2022, I was supposed to be in the high dependency ward for the first 24 hours after surgery and then moved to the general ward for the rest of my stay.  I spent the whole time in the high dependency ward because no beds ever freed up to move me to. 

[Sooth]

This is my experience too. My ex wife (now a dear friend) has attempted suicide twice. One of her housing options seems to be a coffin. 

After her second attempt, she believes she made the mistake of saying how much she benefited by the community support, the fellowship she found when she was hospitalised for a few weeks the time before. She said this to give, what she thought, was an insight into her condition.

She believes and I think I agree, that she was then labelled an attention seeking lonely old woman, looking for a safe bed and company.

When she came too and could make sense of her situation she called me to the hospital, so I was witness to some of these conversations. I am a wordy chatterbox but I was struck dumb, appalled by  the situation. This is a new hospital, they saved her again, ambulances, high tech equipment,  and then ......

This all quite recent I am very worried about her, 

[Sooth]

@MJG017 My daughter, we are in QLD, also suffers from panic attacks. The last, so severe an ambulance was called. A beautiful complicated intelligent young adult was dismissed with a bag of psycho babble that amounted to 'pull your socks up and get a grip'. 

What are we to do.

[Oaktree]

@Sooth 

Oh I am sorry about your wife. This must be a very troubling situation. I attempted in 2009 and got quite close. For years later I struggled because I believed I was living time that didn’t belong to me. Now I am very grateful that I was not successful because I have never felt so well in my life before. Lots of opportunities are presenting themselves and I am enjoying life. I hope something changes for you guys soon

[Captain24]

My 2 admissions have been private @Oaktree so they were considered voluntary but this last admission they weren’t ready to let me come home so they made me stay an extra 2 weeks. The stays are 3 weeks at a time. 

They are already trying to get me to plan my next admission before things turn too far. 

So I’ve been really lucky but I’ve never been in the public system 

[MJG017]

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@Sooth wrote:

@MJG017 My daughter, we are in QLD, also suffers from panic attacks. The last, so severe an ambulance was called. A beautiful complicated intelligent young adult was dismissed with a bag of psycho babble that amounted to 'pull your socks up and get a grip'. 

What are we to do.

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I wish I knew @Sooth, it's heartbreaking.  No one should be treated like that.  It's absolutely terrifying how a situation like that could so easily have a much more tragic result.  Things need to change!  I hope you daughter is doing okay now.  If she's anything like my sister, these attacks can just come from nowhere for seemingly no reason.  She had a slight one when I was visiting and had to go be by herself for a little while.  It was really scary, so I can only imagine how bad it gets.

[MJG017]

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@Oaktree wrote:

I attempted in 2009 and got quite close. For years later I struggled because I believed I was living time that didn’t belong to me. Now I am very grateful that I was not successful because I have never felt so well in my life before. Lots of opportunities are presenting themselves and I am enjoying life.

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This is part of the reason I did an ASIST workshop a few months ago and have my name down for LifeLine crisis counseling next year.  I got pretty low earlier in the year.  I never had thoughts of harming myself before, or then.  But got close enough that I understood clearly how people could find themselves in that position.

It made me realise how important it was to have as many people around who had some skills to help people through those extremely dark moments in their lives.

[Alecam]

Well said This has just happened to me. I was discharged even with having thoughts of suicide

[Jynx]

Oh no @Alecam I am so sorry to hear that! I really wish I could say that that is an unusual thing but.... I'm sure you'll find many here who have had the same thing happen to them.

Just want to let you know I'm here if you wanna chat. Are you worried that the thoughts will become too much and you might act on them any time soon?

You don't have to navigate this alone friend, we got your back 💜

[LovelyBones88]

I totally can relate on this topic... I've had multiple occasions of being taken to hospital via ambulance and cops which then they detains me under the mental health act. On most occassion they don't... And it's in those moment, the hospital just keep discharging me even when I'm a risk to myself... Coz to them, people with BPD are attention seekers... There has been alot of times where they literally don't touch or even check on me... They kept putting me on either a reclining chair or in the safe assessment room that has this god awful chairs to sleep on... But once I get frustrated and goes off to them, they starts to be scared and so they almost always chemically restrain me then there's those few moments that they physically and chemically restrain me... No matter what I say, it doesn't do anything at all so often times I just go home coz I'm not getting anything from the hospital... I know that nurses and doctors are overworked but it's not my fault that they're too tired or couldn't be arsed to do their job properly... Something has to give when it comes to this issues...