Post #15 Inside Psychiatric Wards – 5 Possible Consequences After Discharge

It’s best to be prepared for the possible consequences after being discharged from a psychiatric ward. There may be setbacks or what feels like rejection for continued professional help, but in my personal experience, these misfortunes led to far better longer-term care for me in the end.

1. There are no discharge instructions on how to manage life after hospitalization.

It’s much better to have a plan in place while you’re still in the hospital. If you have a job, going back to work can put in place a routine and solid structure to get you back to equilibrium.  If you don’t have a job, it’s important that you have a plan in place before discharge, especially where you can interact with others and have somewhere to go to get you out of the house. I can’t stress how important this can be for further recovery or else you end up lost and directionless like I was. Sign up for a gym or search for non-credit classes to take for personal development at your local community college. Create an inspiring playlist to turn to for motivation or create a list of books you’ve always wanted to read. Find something you can look forward to.

2. You may have a waiting period before some mental health companies can provide you assistance.

After my third hospitalization, my outpatient psychiatrist for medication management recommended that find someone specializing in talk therapy so that I can have both specialties contributing to my care. Unfortunately, my first experience in trying to find a psychotherapist wouldn’t take in new patients unless they had been out of the psychiatric unit for at least 3 months. There may be many reasons, but the explanation given to me was that I would be deemed too high risk for attempted suicide.

3. Individual talk therapists may not be qualified to help you.

Selecting a talk therapist, if you don’t already have one, can be in and of itself a challenge. But it can be an even bigger challenge when you disclose that you’ve recently been discharged from a hospital’s psychiatric ward, because some psychotherapists may not have the tools to support your needs. Don’t take this honesty as a rejection but as an opportunity to get quality help with someone who has the knowledge and experience to help you.

4. Your outpatient psychiatrist may not want you back.

This happened to me after the first time I was discharged from the psychiatric ward 15 years ago from the time I write this.  My former outpatient psychiatrist, who I had been seeing for a couple years, didn’t want me back. He explained to the hospital psychiatric doctor that I was a “troubled and noncompliant patient,” and he didn’t want me as his patient any longer. Even knowing that it would leave me compromised without medical assistance for the short term, he reiterated to the hospital staff he did not want me back.

In at least two phone calls, the hospital psychiatrist told him that what he was doing was unethical and that he had to take me back or else I would not have a mental health physician after discharge. They later explained what happened to me so that I would be fully aware of what I was going back to. I hope that what happened was incredibly rare, but if this happens, understand that not all psychiatrists are compatible with their patients. You have every right to find another doctor you can trust and respect. You deserve excellent care and a doctor committed to your well-being.

5. You may not return to the psychiatric ward where you were hospitalized to volunteer.

When I was in remission from depression, I had my heart set on volunteering at the psychiatric ward where I was hospitalized for one month. Unfortunately, they said that I could not volunteer “indefinitely” as a result of being hospitalized at the same unit. I can understand how hospitals may have had to create this rule, but I was personally devastated. I felt like my free labor was not of any value – it was the toughest pill to swallow.

Nonetheless, this was an opportunity divert course and, being formally educated and employed as an instructional designer, I offered to volunteer remotely by creating worksheets for inpatients to do in their downtime. The leadership considered my proposal to create a workbook for inpatients as a person with lived experience being hospitalized and it was decided that a workbook might be worthwhile. After submitting several example worksheets, the psych leadership gave me approval to proceed until it is complete for their review. It is currently a slow-going work in progress but it’s a reminder to me that I am on track to recovery by reframing situations positively in my favor.