Inpatient psychiatric units provide acute intervention often in a very short amount of time. The inclusion of multiple clinically trained professional staff make hospital settings well equipped to maximize the benefits of Sanctuary. (And this is the setting in which Sanctuary was originally created!) Perhaps most important in these settings is the assessment of trauma early on in treatment and the use of trauma-specific therapies for intervention. The challenge for hospitals is that the length of treatment is often so short, that it is difficult to do much more than stabilize patients by reducing dangerous behaviors or symptoms. Although the brief treatment model does not allow for the establishment of lasting therapeutic relationships, Sanctuary teaches transferable skills that patients can use as they transition to outpatient care.
Hospitals can deliver two very important things to their clients through Sanctuary. The first is an immediate integration into a safe environment that introduces the idea that people and places can be different from those in the patient’s past. The second is a set of practices like safety plans, self-care plans the S.E.L.F. framework for treatment planning and problem solving that a patient can use outside of the hospital to integrate the experience of safety into other parts of life.