Hi! Mental health social worker here- it’s for the patient’s safety, safety of other patients, and worker safety. Many people coming in are there because they’re at risk of harming themselves. Staff have to make sure (1) nothing that could possibly be used as as a weapon on themselves or others is identified and removed and (2) a thorough status of the patients needs documented when they come in. Oftentimes, people come in with injuries or conditions they either don’t mention or don’t realize are issues. If someone has that on their body and it’s not documented at intake then it could later be used as saying they received an injury while staying at the hospital. Many people coming in are depressed but are without a typical sense of reality and just need a safe place to be temporarily but some people coming in are having full psychotic episodes where they’re not in the same reality and information is misconstrued, they’re experiencing paranoia and making statements that people are hurting them, etc. I know that the process of everything must be really difficult especially when you’re there because you’re already going through something difficult but it’s kind of the only way to ensure everyone is safe. Unfortunately, staff can’t go strictly off what someone says or does to determine what intake process they have since there’s a large amount of people coming in who say one thing but you quickly find out a very different thing is going on with them. Hope all the best for you! I don’t work directly in our inpatient hospital but adjacent/work on processing their assessments for the state so still somewhat familiar and I worked in a residential setting with minors previously. If you hear someone in social work state that “anything can become a weapon,” they’re not kidding. I’ve had so many innocuous things become weapons in my time.
Adding that the scrubs part is specific to that location as not all hospitals follow that. Ours allows clothes from home if they meet certain requirements (and are thoroughly checked first). The only time scrubs would be used is if someone didn’t have enough clothes or if they came in like on a hold as you mentioned and nothing was available that was deemed safe. I know there are some places that just use the same outfits for everyone regardless. Our location also doesn’t do mandatory outside time or anything like that. Time spent in different groups, community areas, and outside are all just really encouraged. If someone is avoiding that thing then they process it with a psychiatrist as it’s usually due to something like depressive symptoms getting in the way and we want to address that.