First mental hospital patient

Ms. C., a 16-year-old girl, is my first patient in a mental hospital, though the hospital is called a Behavior Health Institute. Although this girl had been my patient for about a week, I almost never had a chance to talk alone. So, I knew little about her life. I just wanted to record the experience I had in the mental hospital.  

The unit I went to is for teenage girls. Most of these girls there had crises in their lives, for example, one girl swallowed a full bottle of her mother’s Tylenol pills. Therefore, they were sent to the institute to get treatment and correct their behavior.

All the patients in the Behavior Health Institute need to follow strict rules. All electronic devices were not allowed, and they were only allowed a small amount of personal belongings with them, such as clothing and books. Even the personal hygiene products like toothbrush, tooth paste, shampoo et.al. were kept by nurses. I believe it is to prevent them from committing suicide, harming themselves or others.   

Every day, the kids need to get up around 7:30 am, then come to the nursing station to get their hygiene products and get ready for the day. Nurses check and record their vial every morning, and give them their medication. A doctor assigned to this unit comes to check on the girls every day, but usually she/he will not talk to the girls directly, but ask nurses about the girls’ situation. Every week, each girl has a one-on-one meeting with their psychiatrist to discuss their situation. In addition, every girl needs to fill a form about how she is feeling after breakfast, and report how her day was after dinner by filling another form. Lunch was served at 12:00 pm, and dinner at 6:00 pm. After dinner, there was a gathering around 7:30pm, and all activities ended before 8:30 pm, and the kids needed to go to bed before 9:30 pm. 

During day time, they usually have three sections of group activity every day, including art, music and lessons about how to deal with stress taught by social workers. They have about 30-45 minutes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and snacks are served three times a day. They can receive phone calls from their family members during lunch and dinner, which is the only time they are allowed to communicate with the outside world. Since there is only one phone in the nursing station that they can use, each girl has about 10 minutes to speak.

When there were no other activities, nurses sometimes turned on the only TV in the common room, and let the girls choose a movie, usually a Cartoon, to watch. (I did not think live TV was allowed.) Sometimes, nurses took the girls outside to the playground in the institute. Even the playground is separated from other parts of the institute, so girls would not interact with other persons. Or the girls were allowed to play games in the common room. Usually, these activities lasted less than an hour, and then the girls needed to go back to their room.  

This mental hospital hires interpreters from 8:00 am to 9:00 pm every day to cover most of the daytime except for meal time. The interpreter is required to stay with the patient whenever the kid is having an activity. But since Ms. C. has been in the USA for 5 years, her English is fluent and really does not need a translator. It is more likely that her  guardians needed the interpreting service. According to her psychiatrist, Mr. C. was depressed and anxious, and she was taking medication to control these symptoms at the mental hospital. She was released back to her parents after a two-week-stay in this mental hospital.