None of us likes to go to the hospital. Going there means something is seriously wrong.

Sometimes we cross the threshold before we know exactly what is wrong or what treatment will be recommended. Sometimes we know the diagnosis and planned treatment before the plastic bracelet goes around our wrist. Sometimes we enter through the emergency room.

There's always a good reason to worry because people don't enter hospitals unless a condition is acute. And worry we do, though we know we are likely to get help and return home on the road to recovery.

Hospitalization to treat acute mental illness works on the same principles. When depression or another serious mental illness is acute, psychiatric hospitalization may be recommended. Like entering a hospital for a physical ailment, entering a hospital to treat mental illness is usually short term, designed to get a good diagnosis and to begin effective treatment. And psychiatric hospital staff members are similar, too. Medical doctors with certification in psychiatry - or psychiatrists - direct treatment from nurses and other health care professionals.

What is different about entering a psychiatric hospital is how we - and sometimes our friends, associates and employers - may view it. Old attitudes and stigma associated with mental illness are residuals of a time when psychiatric hospitalization was both a first and last resort for many persons with severe and persistent mental illness. People sometimes stayed in what was called an "asylum" for many years, sometimes a lifetime. Science around mental illness and how to treat it effectively was scarce, so institutionalization was the norm.

During the Kennedy Administration beginning in 1961, the Community Mental Health Act was passed, partly due to the President's personal beliefs and experiences with loved ones challenged by mental illness. The belief that "out of sight - out of mind" was the best approach gradually changed to the belief that like physical illness, mental illness can be effectively treated, often on an outpatient basis.

Progress toward eradicating stigma has been apparent in recent years, helped along by celebrities who have shared their stories, showing by example that wellness and success are as possible for people with mental illness as for people with hypertension or diabetes. Public figures like Patty Duke, Whitney Houston, Mike Wallace, Shawn Colvin, Howie Mandell, Tipper Gore, Art Buchwald, Jane Pauley, Lorraine Bracco, Carrie Fisher and John Forbes Nash Jr. have shared their experiences broadly.

It also helps that, like treatment for physical problems, treatment for mental illness has greatly improved. For many people of all ages who experience acute mental illness and need inpatient psychiatric services, fear of entering a hospital isn't what it used to be. And when people are discharged from the hospital, links to effective ongoing community outpatient treatment that includes medical services, counseling and support are routine. For many, psychiatric hospitalization is the doorway to a healthier life in the community.

If you or a loved one experience an acute episode that might require psychiatric hospitalization, like threatening suicide or hearing/seeing things that aren't there, don't hesitate to call 911 or make your way to the nearest hospital emergency room for a psychiatric screening.

More information about mental illness, or a particular mental illness, and its treatment is available online at www.nmha.org or at www.apahelpcenter.org.

PEG FALCONE is a member of the Jackson County Health Communities Coalition's Mental Health Action Team, a licensed clinical social worker and development director at Southern Illinois Regional Social Services (SIRSS) in Carbondale.