If you've been attending an outpatient mental health program and it hasn't helped, it might be best to consider an inpatient mental health treatment. With inpatient mental health treatment, you're offered improved care and support 24 hours a day to help you recover. But before enrolling in an inpatient mental treatment, the nagging question on your mind is, what should you expect once admitted? This is a major concern for many people seeking mental health treatment because most have no idea what to expect. If you're also in such a situation, here's a guide outlining everything you should expect from an inpatient mental health treatment:

What's An Inpatient Mental Health Rehab?

It's first important to understand what an inpatient mental health rehab is before going deeper into what you should expect. Experts at Jacksonhousecares.com recommend this to demystify everything you might have seen in the movies about psychiatric hospitals. An inpatient mental rehab is essentially a place where persons suffering from mental health issues are admitted to get the much-needed care for their safety. These institutions provide mental health patients with superb support services by ensuring the residential mental health environments are safe and comfortable. Other services offered at the inpatient mental rehab include:

Initial and continuous mental health treatment.
Medical support to address possible health risks you might be going through.
A safe environment where doctors can attend to you right away to address your mental health disorder.
All-inclusive treatment to better the quality of your life.
A means to detox or medicate your body to make it more stable.

Admission into an inpatient mental rehab is recommended for persons with different mental disorders, including:

Severe depression
Suicidal plan or intent
Detachment from reality
Self-injury behavior
Anxiety disorders
Psychotic disorders such as schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia
Hard time maintaining daily functioning
Impulsive behavior and increasing recklessness
Substance-use related disorders such as depression and substance-induced psychosis
Mood disorders such as bipolar disorder and severe depressive disorder

When suffering from these mental disorders, there are some signs and symptoms that'll manifest themselves, and these include:

Mood changes
Loss of apathy and desire
Strange drop in routine functioning at school or work and other daily activities
Loss of interest in activities
Increased sensitivity to taste, sound, touch, and sight
Believing you possess magical thinking or personal powers
Fears and paranoia
Hard time thinking, concentrating, and with other mental tasks

These are the things that the inpatient mental health rehab experts will look to stabilize or improve. As a result, you'll realize an improvement in your overall mental health after some time once they enroll you on the most appropriate treatment option.

What Should You Expect During The Inpatient Health Treatment?

There are distinct differences in inpatient health treatment in methodology and treatment services. With that said, certain aspects apply to every inpatient health treatment, and this includes:

Personalized Treatment Plans

There's no one-size-fits-all treatment plan when receiving inpatient mental health treatment. This is why a psychiatrist or psychologist first examines you before admission to identify essential insights about you such as:

Trying to better understand your medical condition.
Whether you've sought mental health treatment in the past.
Identify previous life experiences that might affect diagnosis.
Determine if there are previous attempts to get treatment.
Your medical history.
Find out if you're using any medication.

This information will be used by psychiatrists or psychologists to determine the best treatment plan for you. This is essential even if you suffer from the same mental illness as another patient because everyone experiences mental problems differently. For instance, if you're suffering from bipolar or anxiety disorder and have resorted to using alcohol or drugs to deal with your condition, the best treatment plan is a dual diagnosis program. This treatment involves the accredited professionals adopting one cohesive program to treat your mental health and disorder. In contrast, the intensive treatment program would be an ideal fit for a patient still suffering from bipolar or anxiety disorder but are either a danger to themselves or having difficulty doing routine daily tasks.

Varying Periods Which The Inpatient Mental Health Treatment Lasts

There's no standard period of time for the length of your admission to an inpatient mental health facility. Instead, certain things determine how long your inpatient mental treatment will last, including the reason you're admitted and your responsiveness to the treatment. With that said, the average period usually ranges between 7 to 15 days for the less severe mental health disorders. Unlike in the past, inpatient mental health treatments are today a lot shorter because they opt for intensive short-term treatment or acute care. Therefore, your mental health illness can quickly be dealt with to allow you quick discharge and carry on receiving treatment as an outpatient. This approach differs from that which was used in the past that adopted long-term care due to challenges managing a patient's condition while being discharged.

Different Types Of Mental Inpatient Care

Another important detail you need to know is that mental inpatient care can be provided in two different forms:

Voluntary Care

It involves checking yourself into the inpatient mental health rehab. This usually happens after realizing that your mental disorder affects other aspects of your life, such as relationships, school, or work. You can also admit yourself into the mental health treatment center after being advised by a mental health professional. At the mental health facility, you not only get treated for your mental illness but also have a safe, caring, and supportive environment that helps you best cope with your condition. With voluntary care, you can decide to leave the mental health facility if you wish. Nonetheless, this isn't advisable, especially if you continue with your inpatient mental health care. The programs followed during this treatment are less restricted compared to those of involuntary care but still maintain an identical structure. After all, the end objective is the same, meaning the same objectives such as promoting healthy habits and counseling need to be followed.

Involuntary Care

This type of mental health care is where a patient is admitted into a mental health treatment facility without their inclination. Instead, it's made possible by law enforcement professionals or court orders following the advice of a mental health expert. This is often done for your own safety if it's determined that you might cause harm to yourself or other individuals close to you. For involuntary care, how long you'll stay at the mental health facility depends on the speed at which you're recovering before being deemed fit to leave. In addition, most mental health treatment center implements stern rules that prohibit any electronic gadget or any other device that could be used as a weapon. These facilities usually come installed with additional protection equipment, for instance, surveillance cameras in all the rooms and are always locked down to stop patients from escaping.

You'll Work With A Broad Team Of Professionals

When receiving inpatient mental health treatment, there's a big team of professionals involved in helping you recover from your mental illness, and this includes:

A certified psychiatrist who's tasked with prescribing the needed psychotic medication to help stabilize your mental disorder.
Mental health technicians that observe and guarantee your safety while receiving treatment.
A physical doctor who treats all medication conditions the patient might suffer, such as acute illness, chronic conditions, or injuries due to self-harm, suicidal attempts, or violence against others.
A nurse who will give you the prescribed medication, gauge its effectiveness, and look for any adverse side effects. In addition, they enlighten patients and their families on the diagnosis made and treatments.
An accredited dietician to check with in case there are any dietary concerns.
Case coordinator who's responsible for resolving any possible issues with your insurance.
A case manager charged with the mandate of planning for services needed when being discharged.

All these professionals work as a team to ensure smooth coordination as you receive mental health treatment and guarantee your comfort and safety while getting treated.

You'll Partake In Different Activities At The Inpatient Mental Health Treatment Facility

Numerous things are offered during inpatient mental health treatment to help you recover from your mental disorder. Therefore, you shouldn't expect that your treatment basically involves sitting around all day. Instead, you'll be involved with different mental health treatments to see how best to help you recover from your mental disorder. After being admitted into the inpatient mental health facility, the first thing to do is to get an assessment by a certified psychiatrist. This is crucial as it helps determine the most appropriate treatment option. Consequently, bloodwork will be done by your doctor, and you'll also get other services, including:

Individual therapy sessions where you'll share your personal experiences with an accredited mental health expert. Thanks to these sessions, you'll learn skills on how best to handle mental health issues after being discharged.
Group therapy involves sharing your experiences with other patients with mental disorders to pinpoint concerns that resulted in mental issues. Knowing this helps you from relapsing into harmful behaviors once more in the future.
Family therapy comprises a mental health professional, your family members, and yourself to discuss ways to provide you with support after being discharged.
Case coordination and management services.
Medication management.
Educational meetings to teach residents coping skills and other tools to support their mental health.
Recreation activities such as art therapy, exercises, and meditation.

Participating in each of the activities will help in improving your mental health.

Scheduling And Structure

For the inpatient mental health treatment to be effective, there needs to be a particular structure in the treatment programs. This means all the routine daily activities need to be according to a particular schedule. The first thing to do in the morning is to shower, prepare yourself, and head for breakfast. Once you're through, the mental health professionals will engage you and other patients in activities such as group therapy sessions, reading, or journaling. Before taking lunch, there's a small break, and you can choose to exercise or watch television. Subsequently, you should take your lunch and after that participate in different activities including:

One-on-one therapy session
Exercise
Group therapy session
Routine checkup by your doctor
Recess
Music lessons
Yoga

Once the day comes to an end, you'll have your dinner and, after that, engage in recreational programs such as listening to music or watching movies to unwind and relax. After that, everyone is expected to head to bed at a set time to ensure they get at least eight hours of rest. The day's structure remains relatively the same because small changes in the daily routine create a stable foundation when going through therapy. The routine programs, involuntary or voluntary, look to restore your healthy habits. For example, regular exercise supports the treatment of mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety by producing endorphins

You'll Be Instructed What To Bring With You To The Mental Health Hospital

Before being admitted into a mental health facility, you first need to learn the hospital's guidelines on the things you're allowed to bring with you. For most psychiatric hospitals, you'll be required to carry essentials such as socks, underwear, pajamas, and toiletries, including soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, and shampoo. For electronics such as tablets or smartphones, you should first confirm whether they're being accepted. This is because some hospitals discourage them because they distract residents and hamper the effectiveness of the mental health treatment. This also applies to items such as medical gadgets, including the CPAP machine, if you suffer from sleep apnea. However, certain items are entirely banned from the mental health facility, including shoelaces, belts, stuffed animals, music players, and sharp objects such as nail clippers.

Takeaway

If you're suffering from mental health disorders, it's normal to be somewhat hesitant about inpatient psychiatric hospitalization. This guide should help ease your concerns by outlining everything about inpatient mental health treatment in detail. After understanding this, you can now check in yourself in a psychiatric hospital and get the exceptional care you need to get better control over your mental disorder.