What does it mean to be admitted in a psychiatric unit?

If you have a mental illness, you may possibly need to be admitted to a psychiatric unit for a period. Here, the treatment consists of a combination of medical treatment, conversational therapy, psychoeducation and support in finding your way back to normal daily life. Psychoeducation means that you learn about your illness and how you live with it in daily life. The entire process and getting over severe mental problems and re-creating your daily life are often called recovery.

Your own active involvement in your recovery is important for your getting better. You can therefore – as soon as you have energy for it – begin to ask for information from your therapists about your treatment options as well as on your choices and rights. This will allow you to make the choices that will have an impact on your life in the future. And remember that you can actually make a recovery after mental illness. It does not need to be a permanent condition.

Psychiatric units look different depending on where you are admitted. Some places have open and closed wards, while others have so-called integrated wards. In open wards, the exterior doors to the ward are open, while those in closed wards are locked. An integrated ward is a combination of an open and closed ward. Here you can either have an enclosed unit inside the ward where the door can be closed during periods, or the exterior door to the entire ward can be open or closed depending on how the patients are doing.

For example, certain patients are not allowed to leave the ward, as they have been forcibly admitted, and the door is therefore locked. and here the door is locked. However, the other patients can freely come and go to the ward depending on their agreements with the staff. The patients who have been committed and locked in will always have the company of the staff so that they are not alone.

Daily life in a psychiatric unit depends on how you are doing. In general, one can say that most activity in a ward takes place in the daytime when there is more staff present, while afternoons, evenings and weekends are busy with visits from family and friends or activities which you and the other patients can start.

The medical treatment consists of finding the right preparation and dosage that can treat or alleviate your symptoms. Therefore, you will have regular talks with a doctor where you will talk about the effect of the medication. It is different from ward to ward, also depending on your condition and the extent to which you are offered conversational therapy. Some departments also offer an exercise room, mindfulness groups and similar.

The staff will observe you during the time you are admitted. For example, they observe your behaviour, your mood, your level of activity, your perception of reality, your eating and sleeping patterns depending on the reason for you having been admitted.

You will be offered a contact person in the ward who will support you through your entire stay. You can always contact him or her if you have not been feeling well or simply need to have a talk with another person. Your contact doctor will prepare a treatment plan for you in cooperation with you and any relatives. This must take place no later than one week after you have been admitted. This plan will be adjusted on a continuous basis.

For example, the treatment plan should contain your diagnosis, which examinations you will have performed, an outline of your treatment as well as the problems which you have in your daily life that are to be resolved so that you can get back to your daily routine. This can, for example, be in relation to your children, your family, your education, your job and so on. In addition, the aim of the treatment and the admission should be described as well as when there should be a follow-up on your treatment plan.

The advantage of an admission is that you will be relieved of all usual everyday tasks, demands and stress factors. In other words, your daily life will be put on hold. This means that you can focus on your own needs. When you are doing better and have the energy, you use the admission to look at what you can do yourself to get better when you come home. What makes you happy? What can give you more energy in your daily life? What should you avoid in your daily life so as not to fare worse and so on? This is also something which you can speak with both other patients and the staff in the ward about.

If you need more support when you come home than you have already, a network meeting is often held before discharge with representatives from the municipality and any relatives concerning your future support needs and the support options from the municipality.