Mental health recovery requires follow up care

Just like People with diabetes, serious arthritis,or other chronic conditions

Mental Health effects one in four people will experience some form of mental illness in their lifetime, less than one in 100 of those will experience a hospitalization for their illness. The rest simply seek no help and eventually recover or seek help through their family physician or mental health professionals and recover without the need for hospital stay.

State Mental Health Hospitals are a progressive, Joint Commission accredited, acute care hospital that specializes in caring for people who have serious, persistent, and/or resistant forms of mental illness.A person might be hospitalized with a severe enough condition that isn’t responding satisfactorily to outpatient treatment or if their condition places their personal safety in jeopardy (i.e. suicidal behaviors). On arare occasion a person’s behavior might be dangerous to others due to their mental illness as in using poor judgment while driving vehicles or threatening others due to delusional thoughts.

Most (60 percent) of all admissions to a Mental Health State Hospital are able to be discharged within six or seven days. The remaining 40 percent would generally be able to be discharged in another two to four weeks. A very small percentage requires longer term care. There are less than eight people at any time in the hospital that have been hospitalized for longer than one year.

Mental health hospitalization is regarded as a part of the process of recovery for this very small percentage of people who are affected by mental illness. All people who leave the hospital do so with follow-up care provided by the local mental health center or private out-patient care provider.

Many forms of mental illness are unable to be cured at this time but all forms can be stabilized and
the person can achieve recovery, often full recovery. Recovery for most people requires on-going follow-up care like it does for people with diabetes, serious arthritis, or other chronic conditions.

People should expect to be able to live productive lives while working on maintaining their mental health. May is Mental Health Month. Please join me in sharing the information above with your family, friends, and others. 

“Hope is the physician of each misery.”

…………..Irish Proverb

Angela has worked inside of a state funded mental health hospital for 20 years learn more about Angela by clicking here. None of the information on this site is meant to diagnose, treat or cure
any illness mentioned.