Researchers in Denmark have discovered that treatment in specialized mood disorder clinics following a hospitalization significantly reduce hospital readmission rates.

In their study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry and titled “Treatment in a specialised out-patient mood disorder clinic v. standard out-patient treatment in the early course of bipolar disorder: randomised clinical trial,” Lars Vedel Kessing et al. followed 158 patients who were discharged from their first, second, or third hospital admission with a single manic episode or bipolar disorder.

The other day, I was looking through a very helpful publication entitled “What To Do in a Psychiatric Crisis in Indiana,” published by NAMI Indiana. I read it before and mentioned it in a previous post entitled “What To Do in a Psychiatric Crisis,” but what struck me this time was the discussion of calling 911. If you call 911 to report a psychiatric crisis, the dispatcher is most likely to send the police, and NAMI cautions:

It is important to note that depending on the police officer involved and other contingencies, s/he may take your loved one to jail instead of to the emergency room. Be clear about what you want to have happen.

That’s excellent advice, but wouldn’t it be better if you called 911 to report a psychiatric crisis, and instead of just the police an ambulance arrived, too? After all, bipolar disorder is an illness, and ambulances have medications that can calm a person down. Also, wouldn’t someone who’s experiencing a major mood episode be more inclined to voluntarily go away in an ambulance than in a squad car? Wouldn’t it be less stigmatizing?

When you’re experiencing a major mood episode, having key information available is essential to ensure that everyone on your treatment team is brought into the loop and the doctor on call has detailed information about your medications.

If everything’s on an even keel right now, you probably don’t want to think about the possibility of a future crisis, but a period of relative calm is the best time to prepare.

Prepare an information sheet that contains all of the following information:

I recently read an interesting article by Kristy Foster on the Farm and Dairy website entitled “A healing place: Farming has a hand in recovery for those suffering from mental illness.” The article shines a spotlight on Hopewell Farm in Mesopotamia, Ohio – a unique 300-acre treatment center for adults with “schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, and other forms of serious mental illness.”

Hopewell has the capacity to serve 40 adults, each of whom is expected to work on a crew, when well enough to do so. Each work crew serves a specific need in the community: housekeeping, kitchen, maintenance and grounds, farm and garden. In addition to requiring residents to serve on a work crew, Hopewell’s program includes:

From Kate:

On a recent admission to hospital I felt more anger than mania. I felt angry over an involuntary admission. As I vented my feelings of anger, they were perceived as symptomatic of a manic episode. Where does that “fine line” exist? Please tell.

We expect that situations like these occur more often than most professionals would like to admit. Although therapists often point out that “Nobody can make you angry,” sometimes people have very good reason to feel angry, and an involuntary admission certainly qualifies as one of these reasons.

Unfortunately, any expression of that anger is likely to be perceived as a symptom of mania. It’s like being suspected of a violent crime you didn’t commit. The more vehemently you protest, the more your captors suspect you of being a violent person capable of committing such a crime.

Bipolar disorder often involves bouts of depression or mania that require hospitalization, which can be particularly stressful for both the person being hospitalized and his or her loved ones. Most stressful, perhaps, is the idea of going to an unfamiliar place, particularly if you’re being hospitalized for mania accompanied by paranoia. In addition, you may be worried about whether your insurance will cover the hospitalization and for how long and how this facility stacks up to other available facilities in your area.