For some patients with mental disorders, doctors may recommend hospitalization, and many family members, especially parents, find it difficult to accept such a recommendation and the reality of having the patient hospitalized. They often have some of the following concerns: my child’s condition is not that serious and does not need to be hospitalized; my child’s hospitalization would be very traumatic to his psyche and become a shadow of his future life experience; my child is very often normal and rational, not the kind of patient with serious dangerous behavior, and being admitted to a psychiatric ward is likely to be attacked by other patients with dangerous behavior or My child is young and innocent, and with so many patients older than him, he may learn some bad habits and be influenced by other patients. And so on, and so forth, and so on. In fact, the above concerns of the patient’s family are based on the understanding that the patients in the psychiatric ward are all severely mentally ill. They think, my child’s condition is not as serious as others, one does not need to be hospitalized in that environment, the other is the hospitalization environment conditions are difficult, my child certainly can not adapt to that environment, and then cause the aggravation of the disease is not to add insult to injury? Obviously, only by answering questions such as “what kind of patients need hospitalization and what is the safety and security of hospitalized patients” and “what are the real benefits of hospitalization for these patients” can their concerns be allayed and they can be more rational. They may be able to respond more rationally to proposals to hospitalize patients. Although there is no standard answer to these questions, I believe that the following answers should be acceptable to most patients’ families, based on the basic principles of psychiatry. For the majority of patients, hospitalization is not the only option. However, for those patients who have serious thinking, emotional and behavioral problems, regardless of the cause, and who may endanger their own lives and property or the lives and property of others at any time due to these problems, such patients generally belong to those who must be hospitalized. These patients basically meet the criteria for involuntary hospitalization recognized by the Mental Health Law of China. In addition, there are other patients with mental disorders, although they do not have the same thinking, emotional and behavioral problems that endanger their own lives and property or those of others, but if they cannot be hospitalized, they can only be separated from society for a long time, confined in a relatively narrow family environment, or face electronic products like computers or cell phones all day long or indulge in network activities, which will eventually make patients lose the ability to return to Eventually, patients will lose the opportunity to return to society, restore and rebuild their social functions, and become mentally disabled. For such patients, although the Mental Health Law does not mention that these patients are in need of treatment or whether they need to be hospitalized in the form of inpatient treatment, these patients will improve their condition greatly and even have the possibility of being cured if they can receive hospitalization and corresponding standardized treatment. Of course, the risk of them going to mental disability would be reduced. Therefore, the vast majority of patients with mental disorders who are hospitalized in closed wards of general psychiatric hospitals are these patients. Although patients in the first category may be at risk of endangering their own safety or the safety of others outside the hospital, the inpatient environment and the appropriate treatment will improve the mood and behavior of these patients in a relatively short period of time and will no longer pose any threat to their own safety or the safety of others. The majority of patients in the second category are characterized by significant self-containment, lack of positive contact with the environment, and do not pose any threat to the safety of other patients. Therefore, we believe that the basic safety of any patient with a mental disorder whose condition does require inpatient treatment can certainly be adequately and sufficiently guaranteed. I think it is even more important to emphasize that inpatient treatment has advantages for the treatment of mental disorders that cannot be matched by non-inpatient treatment. First, inpatient treatment has the safest treatment environment. Since patients receive medical observation and treatment from psychiatric medical staff around the clock in an inpatient setting, all treatment measures are governed by strict operational guidelines and there is no question of treatment irregularities. Because they are under close medical observation, the type, dosage, and administration of medications are more conducive to rapid improvement of the patient’s condition. For example, the dosage of medication will be larger than that of outpatient treatment, and the pace of medication adjustment will be faster, which is obviously beneficial to the patient’s condition. Moreover, the medical staff will take targeted observation measures and solutions for possible side effects of medications to avoid unnecessary suffering of patients. The safe environment of hospitalization is also reflected in the protective medical measures for patients, such as protective restraint and continuous use of sedative drugs for patients with significant agitation, which help to reduce the risk of injury to themselves or others due to agitation. Second, inpatient treatment also helps to improve patients’ perception of their illness status, which in turn makes it easier for them to accept their patient status and role and to actively engage in treatment. Patients with mental disorders usually have varying degrees of self-awareness deficits, i.e., they are not able to detect and recognize the abnormality and pathology of their pathological thinking, emotions and behaviors, nor are they able to detect the severity of their social impairment, and they are certainly not able to accept others’ assessment of their abnormal mental activities, let alone their recommendation to seek medical consultation or even hospitalization. It is this pathological psychological change that makes it difficult for patients to be seen and treated. When patients are hospitalized, on the one hand, the inpatient setting gives them the opportunity to observe and evaluate the abnormal speech and behavior of other patients as a bystander rather than as an authority, which causes them to compare and reflect and to become more aware of the pathological nature of their symptoms. On the other hand, those patients whose conditions have improved will also point out the abnormalities of their pathological speech and behavior as “past patients”, and with their personal accounts, patients will be more likely to recognize the nature of their symptoms. With these two influences, inpatients are more likely to comply with treatment. Third, inpatient treatment is more standardized and comprehensive. Patients with mental disorders not only receive regular medication and physical therapy including repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and non-convulsive electroconvulsive therapy during their inpatient treatment, but also have the opportunity to receive psychotherapy and rehabilitation specifically arranged by the hospital. Formal medication includes not only the proper type and dosage of medication, but also the relatively standardized time and method of taking medication, for example, some medications must be taken during meals to have the best bioavailability, and some must be taken after meals to avoid the corresponding side effects. Patients receiving outpatient treatment can hardly guarantee that they can strictly follow the doctor’s instructions and take the medication correctly every time. Of course, the treatment plan, number of treatments, and duration of other physical therapy such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroconvulsive therapy are easier for inpatients to arrange according to the needs of their condition. These standardized treatment measures not only help patients to get their condition under control as soon as possible, but also help them to get the best results. Receiving regular psychological treatment and rehabilitation during hospitalization is also very important for the overall recovery of patients. Fourth, the inpatient setting is more conducive to the patient’s psychological development and growth. Although the inpatient environment in a psychiatric hospital may seem harsh to the patient’s family, it has a unique effect on the patient’s psychological development and growth. Because the majority of today’s adolescents are only children, and because the Chinese tend to raise their offspring in a more “spoiled” and “coddled” way, even adolescents who do not have mental disorders are more or less likely to have a low level of psychological maturity, to establish good interpersonal relationships and to maintain good cooperation. Even adolescents who do not have mental disorders are more or less likely to have poor psychological maturity, poor ability to establish good interpersonal relationships and maintain good cooperative relationships, and the problems of these adolescents are more serious. Since they are only children, they are the “little emperors” who are pampered by their parents and elders since they are young, and have no opportunity to learn to get along with others on an equal footing. As a result, patients in this age group generally appear to be less active, selfish, and indifferent in interpersonal interactions, and lack the appropriate self-discipline. Because the vast majority of patients in the inpatient setting are adolescents of this age group, these common deficits lead to frequent interpersonal conflicts or clashes between them. In the process of conflict and conflict resolution, with or without the involvement of health care professionals, these patients identify certain problems or deficits in each other and in themselves and learn to change these behavioral problems in themselves. In this process, the patients learn to put their hearts into the hearts of others and to “do unto others as they would have them do unto them”, which will benefit them in their subsequent interpersonal interactions. In addition, due to the overprotection and indulgence of parents and other elders, contemporary adolescents generally have poor self-care skills and are lazy. In the inpatient setting, self-care is a basic ability, and patients unknowingly learn to take care of themselves, either spontaneously or under the guidance of nursing staff. Moreover, it is worth emphasizing that contemporary adolescents are generally characterized by a weak sense of rules due to social influences and negligence in the family upbringing process. This is even more true in the case of patients with mental disorders. During hospitalization, patients gradually learn to follow the rules that help them adapt to society better and gradually develop a better sense of rules due to the specific environment of the hospital and the requirements of the medical staff to manage the order of the ward. We often hear patients’ parents exclaim at the first follow-up visit after discharge that “this child is much more understanding, diligent and humane after hospitalization” and regret that they did not allow their children to be hospitalized as early as possible after their illness. Of course, the benefits of hospitalization for patients with mental disorders go far beyond the above-mentioned aspects. For example, the experience of building friendships with peers in the inpatient setting helps them to establish good relationships with others when they return to society, and learning to tolerate the pain of not having their current wishes fulfilled as soon as possible in the inpatient setting helps them to make up for the lack of training in delayed gratification, so that they can endure greater pain and frustration in the future without suffering a mental breakdown. The ability to endure greater pain and frustration in the future without suffering a mental breakdown. Because of these advantages, we believe that for the majority of patients, inpatient treatment can have an effect on the treatment and recovery of mental disorders that is unmatched by outpatient treatment.