Physical Health vs Mental Health: facilities and budgets
I was very impressed at the quality of care. Various doctors, each with different specialties, came and checked her out and ordered lab tests within their expertise. Two ER physicians, a cardiologist, an epidemiologist, etc. Although the shifts and names changed, they were always checking my adult daughter (24yo) out.
I was apprehensive at being in an emergency room on a Friday night. When I was a kid in Brooklyn, ERs were dangerous places to be. People got stabbed in ER waiting rooms. Patients got into conflict with each other. This was a completely different experience.
People were civil. One man, sitting with a patient, got into a loud badgering argument with the patient he was supposed to be supporting. Staff took him out of there.
It was crowded with beds and patients filling every space. But it went just like it was supposed to. Different doctors had different theories, and eventually they were all saying: probably Mono. And they did the quick-and-dirty tests and also the longer-gold-standard tests and we waited for results.
There was no rush to discharge her until the hospital staff was very comfortable with it, and they kept her for a few more days. Put her in a two-person room with an elderly lady who believed in the healing power of Gospel music played very loud. It could be worse.
There were the unattributed sounds: a person throwing up in the distance, somewhere a woman calling "where am I", people farting and shitting and the things that happen in hospitals. But all in all, it was the most civilized experience, the most communicating experience I've ever seen in a hospital.
And through it all, I'm wondering: this is wonderful, why don't we have this for mental health?
Unless I'm wrong, our equivalent institution is like Western Psych, which is not nearly the same thing. They lock you up there.
I'm reminded that you get what you budget for, and what you plan for, and we are so far behind in public mental health treatment.