Hopefully, one day I'll be about to write more about why outpatient psychiatric appointments are structured the way they are. It's a complicated topic, and most clinics are attempting to balance many differing obligations.
However, I think a common experience for many people is that, when a person is doing well, their appointments with their psychiatrist are typically scheduled several months apart. When they do occur, they are usually about 30 minutes long.
If a person tells their outpatient psychiatrist that their symptoms are worsening or that something doesn't seem quite right, many clinics can shorten the time between appointments. If the clinic is a mixed modality psychiatric clinic, sometimes more frequent psychotherapy appointments are offered in conjunction with medication management appointments to provide additional support. Larger clinics can have patients see multiple types of providers in addition to their psychiatrist.
However, by definition, when a person is ill enough to need psychiatric hospitalization, they are also too ill for the majority of outpatient clinics to care for them. And it's not only a matter of being able to see the psychiatrist. Often, patients need the help of a staff that is available 24 hours a day, like the nurses and technicians who are always present in hospitals to assist the patients.
Sometimes I hear from patients that they thought, since the hospital is the highest level of care, that the assessments with their psychiatrist at the hospital would be longer. So instead of a 30 minute check-in, maybe they would see their psychiatrist for a few hours a day. It's a very reasonable train of thought.
However, the reality is inpatient assessments with the psychiatrist are about getting to see a patient every day, instead of every several weeks or months. Additionally, even after the "appointment", the staff are around to make sure that the care plan is activated as soon as possible. This ensures that by the next day, there is already data on what is working and what is not.
This idea of daily appointments applies to the other professionals on the care team as well. They each get to see you daily, if needed, instead of several weeks apart.
The overall concept is that by being able to see patients frequently, and by being able to make rapid changes if they are needed, hopefully the patients will be able to improve more quickly. That approach, combined with the assistance of the 24-hour staff and the specialized facilities, is the backbone of psychiatric hospitalization.
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