Part 1 in Series Called in the Holding Room~

Good evening readers’ hope your mood is stable today’s hope you realize what a gift a precious valuable gift your life is to this world. Tonight I am starting a 3 part series on a very in-depth and interesting topic. Why is hospitalization important and where the mental health community is failing as a whole. The first part of the series will focus on” the holding room”

  The holding room is where a person goes in the ER to be seen by a psychiatrist, and have psychiatric evaluation, to see if they are mentally stable enough or need to be admitted in toe psych ward. We can all agree health is important, knowing our bodies and caring for them is vital to be healthy and productive person in society.

 There have been numerous efforts to emphasize the importance of mental health treatments and give mental health the same emphasis as physical health. I find it so sad when such a stigma overshadows mental health and who suffers most are the patients and their families! Even with the efforts being made, mental health treatment has lagged behind the psychical health. Health refers to Mind, body and Spirit. Our bodies are intricately designed so that one affects the other.

I recall a few years back reading a article in the newspaper about a mother whose son had bipolar and she brought him to the hospital to get help and treatment. To get him stabilized in a hospital setting. I remember her frustration and anger because her son was put into a room and left there, only to find out they had no room and could not get him a bed. He was at risk of harming himself and he never got the help he so desperately needed! He fell through the cracks of the mental health community. How sad is that, when someone who needs help and seek sit out is not able to receive it find that heartbreaking!

So here is my own personal story of being in the holding room! Thankfully, I got the help I needed! For many do not ever see that help. I recall the first time I was suicidal and my fiancé at the time brought me to the ER. your brought to a small room and a security guard stands at your door to make sure you don’t leave or hurt yourself remember like it was yesterday, how scared I was, just laying there on that small cot., holding dons hand! Waiting and waiting for the doctor and the caseworker to come see and talk to me.

I would be put through a series of questions about my life, my medical history, my moods and why I feel suicidal. It was a long tiresome process, One that I had been through many times. However, the feelings never changed of how scared I was each time I was in there. The evaluation is to determine if your stable enough to go home or will they need to admit you! I got help. Yet what happens to those who do not? What happens when no beds are available!

People can speak out, debate, and argue the fact that more money needs to go into hospitals and mental health field. Although there is a emphasis on the importance of treating mental health, it still not viewed in the same light of importance as physical health! Society’s priorities will only change when money is put where the government’s mouths are. Otherwise, those who suffer, suffer with the fear that they will not be able to get help. This is why it is vital so important, I cannot stress this enough to speak out and speak your story to whoever will listen, the more we do not sit in silence the more people will become aware of the epidemic that this is! Not the stigma or the way media portrays mental health, but the reality and the clear picture of who we are.

Things need to change, before another human being falls between the cracks and another life is lost and left alone to their pain and desperation. Please check back tomorrow night for part 2 of the series” Getting the most of Hospitalizations?