Who has the key? Locked v Open Mental Health Wards

I haven’t written for a while, I guess I was busy doing other stuff.  I also had this thing that my blog posts needed to be perfect and not a free flowing thought writing thing, which hindered the progress of this blog somewhat (more on the perfectionism another time!).

So I found myself this evening thinking about writing some more blog posts.  After all, those who know me know that I’m never short of words.  Those who have had the pleasure or not of receiving an email from me definitely know this!  I read somewhere today that emails should be no longer than 140 words (incidentally the same number as a tweet) well at this, I definitely fail!

I also read today about a study that explored the results of a 15 year study looking into the outcomes of people who spent time on an open vs a closed mental health ward.  For those of you who don’t know – an open one is where the door to leave the ward is not locked, a closed one is the opposite, when it remains locked.  This reminded me about my stay on an inpatient unit, almost 5 years ago now.  It definitely does not feel that long ago – its still very raw for me.  I miss the time I spent with the amazing other ‘inmates’ who had a profound impact upon me – without them I would definitely not be here today.  They were my rock, better than any medication or therapy.

Anyway, back to the study, which can be found @TheMentalElf here: http://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-health/suicide/locked-wards-vs-open-wards-does-control-safety/

Basically, without complicated research terminology people on open wards had a lower probability of suicide attempts, a lower probability of absconding with return and a lower probability of absconding without return.  The probability of completed suicide was not decreased in comparison, but was not increased either.

I’ll let the results speak for themselves (and my tweets).  At some point I will also speak in more depth about my own experiences on a locked (and sometimes closed) ward, from which I did abscond!  But that’s for another day.

Evidence 2 supportopen mental health wards. Feelings of being trapped in prison like conditions are very real. https://t.co/zPEQfVCpFW

— Bethan Mair Edwards (@pixiegirle) July 29, 2016

@Mental_Elf lots of patients feel very claustrophobic, which is really anxiety provoking

— Bethan Mair Edwards (@pixiegirle) July 29, 2016

@MiracleTraining its financial. with a locked door you don't need to permanently man the door. It can be done but it costs money.

— Bethan Mair Edwards (@pixiegirle) July 29, 2016

@MiracleTraining yes psychologically it's a nightmare on top of feeling like hell in the first place!

— Bethan Mair Edwards (@pixiegirle) July 29, 2016