What's It Like Being Hospitalized for Bipolar? - Physical Activity for Bipolar?

Written by Juliet

Physical Activity:

It is also important to keep active by getting some physical activity each day, in the gym or on walks. We encourage you to stay out of your room at least 6 hours a day and not isolate yourself from others.

Sleep Habits:

We encourage you to be up and out of bed by 8:30 AM. To promote proper sleep hygiene, we recommend that patients retire to their rooms by 12:00 midnight during the week, and by 1:00 AM on weekends. Adolescents are to be in bed by 11:00 PM on weekdays and 12:00 midnight on weekends.

Nutrition:

We will be assessing your food and fluid intake to see if you are maintaining proper nutrition. Meals should be eaten in the dining area. To facilitate getting the meal that you ordered, please complete your menus for the next day by 1:00 PM.

Privileges:

Patient safety is our highest priority. For this reason, if we think a patient is at risk for harming himself or herself, we have the patient stay on the inpatient unit on observation until he/she is safe. Once a patient is safe to go off the unit the first privilege is to go on campus with staff for tests and groups.

The next privilege level is to go on campus with family, then later in the hospitalization, on campus alone for periods of time.

Towards the end of the hospitalization, the patient may be given a therapeutic leave of absence (TLOA) to assess one's mood and level of functioning off the unit.

You are strongly encouraged to follow these guidelines which we have found to be helpful in our treatment of many patients with affective disorders. Participation in the entire Affective Disorder Program is considered when the Treatment Team determines what privilege level is appropriate for you.

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