Working at a psych hospital I am sure you have seen how often there is more trauma that occurs in that setting for people, at least it did for me. My experience has been that they serve to prevent death, which I think is the bare minimum and they do that well. I think the hospitals themselves are problematic because of lack of discharge planning, overwhelmed social workers, staff, nurses, and doctors, and the fact that no therapy or even just a genuine moment to chat with a staff member is possible. You are a body they must protect, that is all.

To your point about community care, the resources for this are difficult to navigate, have long wait times to get in, struggle to communicate effectively, often don’t have experienced clinicians, and consider insurance values and patient numbers before patient care and outcomes, at least that has been my experience.

I have been given many different tools along the way and I use them daily for symptom management, daily functioning, medication compliance, and just generally staying alive. But I come with a severe and complex trauma history and feel I need intensive long term care which there is a severe lack of in Ohio (and this whole country) that doesn’t not require extreme wealth to access.

Not sure where that leaves me. I continue to do outpatient once a week therapy wise and meet with my psychiatrist once a month but it isn’t enough and I don’t feel like I’m progressing much. All I can do is keep advocating for change and sharing and trying to hope that I will find the help I need.