That sounds about right. The first time I took my wife to the hospital to get her checked in, they led us to a room where we were instructed to wait. During the 30-45 minutes of waiting, my wife wandered out of the room about 10 times… looking for a bathroom, looking for a vacant bedroom so she could lie down, talking to some guy in an SUV outside, etc. etc., and then wandering off to a grassy break area where she took an umbrella from a picnic table and settled into her own shady place on the lawn.

The security guards kept telling me to keep her in the room. Finally, I asked, “What do you want me to do, tackle her?” I guess they expected me as the husband to be able to control my wife. What a joke.

Finally, a very competent woman who was handling the check-in was able to coax my wife back inside the building. Unfortunately, later in the evening, my wife became very upset over something and had to be forcibly escorted to another more secure “ward.” I heard it took three security guards. They did manage to keep her in the building, though. That would be a nightmare to find out that a loved one was wandering around in such a state with nothing more than cigarettes and a lighter. It’d be even more of a nightmare to find out that she had a credit card.

My sister, despite assiduous care in taking her meds (I watched her every time for months) had a break, and ‘ran amok,’ as we call it. Once I got her to a large, pretty good regular hospital, with assistance of the local police, the hospital LET HER GO OUT THE DOOR in stocking feet, with no ID other than her two packs of cigarettes, and her lighter. This despite the fact that I talked to the social worker, who called my sister’s psychiatrist, who urged the social worker to admit my sister. This, after I spent about a half hour talking to the head nurse for about a half hour, trying to convince her that my sister was really ill, and needed her medications. So, I ran after sis for another couple of hours, begging 911 cops for help, finally got her to a decent facility.

Good luck.
Jenn

Sending you both hugs and positive vibes,

Tara (bipolar II and GAD)