The everyday experience of psychiatric hospitalization: the users' viewpoint

Using 38 focussed accounts the author reports on the hospitalization experiences of patients 18 to 38 years old in the psychiatric ward. The sample comes from the psychiatric wards of two general hospitals in the Montréal area (Canada). The data were analyzed using a qualitative method. Empirical categories were inferred from the respondents' discourse based on the broad themes which make up the psychiatric experience: admission; hospital environment and rules; daily life; medication; relations with the staff and leaving the hospital. The results shed light on the suffering, dissatisfaction and ambivalent feelings surrounding the patients' hospital experience. Based on the experience of psychiatric patients, the author identified five processes at work during psychiatric hospitalization.