Need ideas for gifts for someone in the psych hospital

i am kind of looking for ideas for friends and family who end up there. I really liked when my dad gave me a basket of different colored jelly beans and had a type written note stating that each color was for a different “medicine”: red was compassion, black was vigor, yellow was cheer, green was discipline and pink was optimism. Was a bit of a play on the placebo effect but it did really seem to make me feel better even though I knew it was fake.

I have a friend who has been stuck in hospital out of state and I have sent her books and music over the years.

Now my wife has a cousin who is in the local psych hospital and I am really not sure what to bring her… I know a roll of quarters would come in handy for the vending machines and we are planning to bring her a sub sandwich sometime.

Any other ideas?

These psyche units are always kept so cold, perhaps a sweater would I be greatly appreciated.Or maybe a stuffed animal if it istill allowed, some hospitals allow, some do not. Recently when I was there, my fiance would bring me a large iced coffee and that meant more to me than anything,but each hospital has different rules as far as what is allowed.

maybe a pillow?

I agree with @Kittycat, a stuffed animal would be nice. A pillow too like @jukebox suggested is a good idea too!

de oderant body spray and endless fags.

Food is always a good gift. How about a music player and some music? I haven’t priced them in years but I bet you could pick up a CD player and a couple CD’s for under $35.00? Or even a cassette player or just a radio.

I have always appreciated warm fuzzy socks.

Why do they do this? I was practically freezing throughout the night in the psyche ward I was at, and to top it all off the only pants I had were ripped hospital ones until the last day I was there where my roommate gave me a pair of jeans that didn’t fit him. I needed 3 blankets just to stay what I considered warm, though. They would have AC running all throughout the night, and this was during fall so it wasn’t even hot or anything. I would literally be shivering when I woke up in the morning from it. It was so bad it made me think the nurses were doing it on purpose at times because they didn’t like the patients. I thought they wanted us to feel like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.

finger puzzles and candy bars, books on spring gardening

No they actually wanted you to be like Jack Nicholson at the end of “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest”. Did you know that Danny Divito and Christopher Lloyd were both in that movie? They both played patients. What’s really interesting is that SOME of those other patients in the movie were REALLY patients in real life.

J. took the words right out of my mouth…warm socks would be great–and you can get them at the dollar store for $2 a piece. A warn blanket also.**