yea me too, they want to ship you out as soon as possible here in the states

I don't reallythink that they are that different. But as our "lunatic asylums" only closed recently (the closest to me shut its door only 7yrs ago) there remains a huge stigma about 'mental hospitals'. One woman who was in one of the old style asylums was on her 60's buut had been incarcerated aged 13 for stealing something very small and insignificant. I think people are still worried about this.
People aren't kept in for long periods of time unless absolutely neccesary. They can't be; there aren't enough beds.

lol theres never enough beds for anything these days

we are having a lot of problems with a super bug called MRSA..this is due to a lack of "clean" hospitals here in the uk...(one of many probs)

Quite literally, the insurance coverage in the US is mostly very limited on how long they will support a person going inpatient. I know plenty of stories about people being booted right in the middle of their treatment--put out on the street without being ready to handle life yet...It is a terrible reality...I guess the opposite is true in the UK where people fear they will never be released...Yikes...we need to meet in the middle I guess.

we also have a prob with overcrowding..even in the private sector..one case springs to mind where a woman had to give birth outside the waiting room for lack of space and trained personal..disgusting.

They don't keep you in longer than necessary here in UK. But v often patients go in for ops and pick up a bug, MRSA, which means a longer stay in hospital. It's a big problem here due to dirty hospitals.

MRSA isn't a problem just in the UK, we have it here in our hospitals as well. I've seen several patients with it. We almost always have a few empty beds. Most of our patients are with us for a couple of weeks at most, but some have been there for literally months. It depends on the severity of the illness, the long term ones are usually waiting for placement either in a group home or the state hospital. The state hospital replaced the old fashioned aslyums but there are still a few sad individuals who simply cannot function outside a hospital setting. As far as I know none are there becasue someone determined they are crazy, all the patients I see transferred there are incapable of living in a less restrictive environment. But it's also a money game, I understand the dynamics but still find it hard to accept how as a society we put a price tag on any person's well being. K, getting off my soapbox now =)

We still have mental hospitals in Canada. Our health care is also different then the states.

I think alot of it has to do with money. I don't know much about "asylums" but I do know that there is a mental health facility in Toronto, and several north of the city. I guess it would be the same thing. As far as I know, most procedures and/or care is covered in Canada - but not in the States. Not really sure how Britain works. I have never heard of MRSA until this post - would anyone care to expand??

I know here in the US where I live...small city of Delaware we had a main hospital which is the state hospital for the mentally ill. It was this hospital that took those in who were charged with crimes,ect. At one time....this was the hospital option we had. So, there was lots of fear to go. Even now we have 3 hospitals for behavioral health that are like club med and people here still fear the stigma of the mental hospital. Alot of the fear is they just dont know the other options available to them.