My intention in writing these posts is to share the experiences that I went through with my son, starting with the first manifestation of his illness and our journey through numerous subsequent episodes. It’s also to provide commentary as a parent and psychiatrist on issues that these experiences bring up, such as how the diagnostic process works in mental health, and how to work with treatment providers and medication issues. My hope is that reading this may be helpful for people with mental health issues and also their families and friends.
Like most public mental health systems, Wisconsin’s Dane County had general hospitals with acute care psychiatric inpatient units as the general point of entry for the seriously mentally ill. For patients whose behavior couldn’t be managed there or who would require a longer stay there were the state hospitals: Mendota Mental Health Institute and Winnebago State Hospital.
What was unusual in the Dane County system was the number and variety of less intensive, less-restrictive treatment settings. It is instructive to compare this set of services with what is available in other locales and to think what would be involved in improving services. These treatment settings included residential treatment facilities where patients could stay as a step down from hospitalization or while they were looking for a place to live; partial hospitalization where they spent time in a very structured setting with observation and monitoring; and licensed community care homes, which were alternative living facilities that dispensed medication…