Psych ward out here is mostly for chronically ill patients like schizophrenia, depression or bipolar. The patients here are interesting. I kinda forgot that in the city, "crazy" people like to hit on single gals. In undergrad, I always get hit on by guys on the bus, either crazies or foreigners. So it's been a while for me. It's kind of funny now. For the past 4 weeks, I've had about 5 male patients flirting with me and 2 marriage proposals. What a crazy world since to them, this is all reality but I know that it's only reality in their minds, delusion or hallucinations. Part of me find that it's really frustrating dealing with them day in or day out because it's not something I could understand. But it's actually good for them since they can re-focused by coming into the psych ward and not doing something harmful outside on the streets.
The patients here really know how to play the system. The key phrase they use most often is "I'm thinking about killing myself." That will get them an automatic committed admission to the ward where they don't have to pay for rent (Medicare pays), get 3 meals a day, a bed and people to talk to. But the thing is most of them really do have a pysch problem. It's just that our system is not perfect and can be totally be taken advantage of.
Another thing that they do is the they come in around the 25th of the month when they ran out of money from social security check then they will stay until the 3rd of the next month when they get the next check. This is particularly true for the druggies.
Even though they play the system, our preceptor plays with them too. His reasoning was that it's better for them to be in the ward and trying to get help then get in trouble out on the streets. That does make sense and it seems to be working. To each their own.
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