How are asylums in today's society?

My brother has got a psychosis. Hears tiny voices in his head. Believes in secret organizations who observe him. Paranoia and delusions. One day, he threatened to drive his car against a tree and get himself killed. So when he freaked out, he was taken to a mental hospital.

Those places are like hospitals, only with some more safety-precautions. You have unbreakable glass on the windows, and they cannot be completely opened, so people can’t climb out and jump down. They are not allowed to have anything dangerous in the rooms. Like they eat with plastic knives and they aren’t allowed to have glass bottles. And the power plugs have covers with locks that only the personnel can open. And they can use only electrical shavers, with no blades. The personnel asked us about what we carry, and we had to leave everything that was potentially dangerous in a safe deposit box at the entrance. And they lock the doors so that patients don’t run away. But they also had peaceful music and beautiful paintings on the hallway.

And as soon as my brother was on medication and back to halfway normal behavior, they put him on an “open” station with less safety precautions. And he could also go out take a walk. And we could visit him whenever we liked to and carry anything we usually had in out pockets. Later, he was send back home. He is still ill with psychosis, but he is treated by a psychologist with an ambulant clinic. He just goes to visit him, like other people would visit their doc for their heart meds or whatever. As long as he doesn’t endanger himself or anyone else, he stays outside and can go home.

And, oh: This is Germany. Other countries might have other ways to treat mentally ill people. But I have a friend in France who says that French hospitals for mentally ill patients are pretty much the same.